Fatty acid constituents of Peganum harmala plant using Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectroscopy

Fatty acid contents of the Peganum harmala plant as a result of hexane extraction were analyzed using GC–MS. The saturated fatty acid composition of the harmal plant was tetradecanoic, pentadecanoic, tridecanoic, hexadecanoic, heptadecanoic and octadecanoic acids, while the saturated fatty acid derivatives were 12-methyl tetradecanoic, 5,9,13-trimethyl tetradecanoic and 2-methyl octadecanoic acids. The most abundant fatty acid was hexadecanoic with concentration 48.13% followed by octadecanoic with concentration 13.80%. There are four unsaturated fatty acids called (E)-9-dodecenoic, (Z)-9-hexadecenoic, (Z,Z)-9,12-octadecadienoic and (Z,Z,Z)-9,12,15-octadecatrienoic. The most abundant unsaturated fatty acid was (Z,Z,Z)-9,12,15-octadecatrienoic with concentration 14.79% followed by (Z,Z)-9,12-octadecadienoic with concentration 10.61%. Also, there are eight non-fatty acid compounds 1-octadecene, 6,10,14-trimethyl-2-pentadecanone, (E)-15-heptadecenal, oxacyclohexadecan-2 one, 1,2,2,6,8-pentamethyl-7-oxabicyclo[4.3.1]dec-8-en-10-one, hexadecane-1,2-diol, n-heneicosane and eicosan-3-ol.