BACKGROUND: Fatty acids are essential for human health. Currently, there is a search for alternative sources of fatty acids that could supplement such sources as staple crops or fishes. Turions of aquatic plants accumulate a variety of substances such as starch, free sugars, amino acids, reserve proteins and lipids. Our aim is to see if turions can be a valuable source of fatty acids. METHODS: Overwintering shoots and turions of aquatic carnivorous plants were collected. The plant material was extracted with hexane. The oils were analyzed using a gas chromatograph with mass spectrometer. RESULTS: The dominant compound in all samples was linolenic acid. The oil content was different in turions and shoots. The oil content of the shoots was higher than that of the turions, but the proportion of fatty acids in the oils from the shoots was low in contrast to the oils from the turions. The turions of Utricularia species were shown to be composed of about 50% fatty acids. CONCLUSIONS: The turions of Utricularia species can be used to obtain oil with unsaturated fatty acids. In addition, the high fatty acid content of turions may explain their ability to survive at low temperatures.

Analytical Department New Chemical Syntheses Institute 13A Tysiąclecia Państwa Polskiego Ave 24 110 Puławy Poland

Department of Analytical Chemistry Medical University of Lublin 4a Chodzki St 20 093 Lublin Poland

Department of Basic Medical Sciences Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences Casimir Pulaski Radom University 27 Boleslawa Chrobrego Str 26 600 Radom Poland

Department of Botany Physiology and Plant Protection Faculty of Biotechnology and Horticulture University of Agriculture in Kraków 29 Listopada 54 Ave 31 425 Cracow Poland

Department of Experimental and Functional Morphology Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences Dukelská 135 CZ 379 01 Třeboň Czech Republic

Department of Plant Cytology and Embryology Institute of Botany Faculty of Biology Jagiellonian University in Kraków 9 Gronostajowa St 30 387 Krakow Poland

Department of Plant Physiology and Biophysics Institute of Biological Sciences Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology Maria Curie Skłodowska University 19 Akademicka St 20 033 Lublin Poland

Department of Vascular Surgery Medical University of Lublin Staszica 11 St 20 081 Lublin Poland

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