Comparative Study of the Fatty Acid Composition of the Acer truncatum Bunge from Different Producing Areas

Abstract

Acer truncatum Bunge is a new type of economic forest tree species that produces nervonic acid. Since it was developed as a woody oil tree species, its oil value has attracted increasing attention. However, new germplasm resources with oil-type characteristics are still lacking. In this study, we studied the differences in the oil content and fatty acid composition of the seed kernel oil of A. truncatum from 11 natural forest-producing areas. The Kashi city of Xinjiang and Yangling city of Shaanxi Province can be used as the high-oil germplasm. The oil content of these two areas is more than 50%. The highest relative content of nervonic acid was 9.92% in the Chifeng city of Inner Mongolia, and Jianping city of Liaoning Province was the second, accounting for 9.84%. These two areas can be used as germplasm for the high nervonic acid. Finally, high-quality germplasms with a high oil content and high relative content of nervonic acid were selected from Yangling city of Shaanxi Province and Chifeng city of Inner Mongolia. The relative content of nervonic acid in the kernel oil content in fatty acids from 11 different producing areas of A. truncatum plants was negatively correlated with the content of each fatty acid, whereas the relative content of nervonic acid was extremely significantly positively correlated with the relative content of erucic acid. However, the correlations between the kernel oil content, relative nervonic acid content and environmental factors did not reach an extremely significant level, and only the oil content showed a significant positive correlation with the longitude and frost-free period. The high content of nervonic acid in this study is the first report of the highest relative content of nervonic acid in A. truncatum kernel oil. We believe that the A. truncatum double-high characteristic oil-type germplasm resources obtained by this screening provide a scientific basis for breeding, development and utilization in the A. truncatum.