Lipid Profiles and Health Promoting Uses of Carrot (Daucus carota L.) and Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)

Humans are in–separately linked to the existence of vegetables, as they are the source of several bio–products essential for the survival of the animal kingdom. The importance of vegetables from the point of view of the food industry is determined by their complex chemical content that is important to the human body and this includes organic substances (lipids, proteins, carbohydrates and organic acids). This study examines comparatively the levels of lipid compositions in the samples of dried carrot (Daucus carota L) and cucumber (Cucumis sativus L). The fatty acid, phospholipid and sterol compositions were determined from the samples using Gas Chromatography method. The most concentrated fatty acid (%) was linoleic acid (C18:2) (54.04 and 57.62) and the least was arachidic acid (C20:0) (0.01 and 0.01) for Daucus carota and Cucumis sativus, respectively. The result showed the quality parameters of fatty acids investigated in the Daucus carota and Cucumis sativus samples as: SFA (23.36 and 20.15 %); MUFA (15.27 and 15.5 %); PUFA (60.37 and 64.58 %); DUFA (54.04 and 57.62 %); TUFA (75.64 and 79.83 %); MUFA/SFA (0.63 and 0.76 %); PUFA/SFA (2.87 and 3.47 %); O/L (0.23 and 0.23 %). The total phospholipid contents present in the Daucus carota and Cucumis sativus were 546.11 and 594.51 mg/100 g while that of phytosterols were 366.16 and 376.69 mg/100 g, respectively. Phosphatidycholine has the highest content in both samples (265.80 and 283.64 mg/100 g). The concentrations of phytosterols were very low except in sitosterol (198.71 and 200.53 mg/100 g), stig–masterol (118.42 and 120.39) and campesterol (34.48 and 34.44 mg/100 g) for the Daucus carota and Cucumis sativus samples, respectively. This study revealed that Daucus carota and Cucumis sativus have high values of UFA that make them a special kind of vegetables for nutritional and health applications, and may be a good source of phytosterols.