Lipid content, fatty acid profile, and nutritional value of new oat cultivars

Oat is a cereal with a long history of cultivation and great importance in human nutrition, not only because of its starch and protein content, but also because of its substantial fat content with a relatively high proportion of unsaturated fatty acids. The fat content, fatty acid composition, and nutritional value of six new oat cultivars were evaluated. Total fat content ranged from 2.9 g/100 g (Korok) to 6.1 g/100 g of sample (Kamil). Naked oat cultivars had significantly higher fat content than hulled oat cultivars (p < 0.0001). The most abundant fatty acids in all tested oat cultivars were linoleic (34.6-38.2%), oleic (30.7-32.2%), and palmitic acid (21.4-22.7%). Naked cultivars had significantly higher amounts of linoleic (pyellow = 0.0125, pblack = 0.0472) and lower amounts of palmitic acid (pyellow = 0.0019, pblack = 0.0031) than hulled oat cultivars. All analysed oat samples had low atherogenic (0.17-0.19) and thrombogenic indices (0.30-0.34). These findings indicate that the tested new cultivars could be a good source of nutritionally valuable oil that plays an important role in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.