Composition of bioactive compounds in kernel oils recovered from sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) by-products: Impact of the cultivar on potential applications

• Oil yield in kernels of various sour cherry cultivars ranged within 17.5–37.1%.
• Cultivar has significant impact on the amount of bioactive compounds in kernel oil.
• γ-Tocopherol and β-sitosterol were the main minor compounds in the extracted oil.
• α-Eleostearic acid was detected for the first time in sour cherry kernel oils.

Lipophilic bioactive compounds in kernel oils recovered from fruit pits of six sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) cultivars were studied. Oil yields ranged between 17.5–37.1%, with an average of 31.8%. The main fatty acids were linoleic (35.50–46.06%), oleic (25.25–45.30%), α-eleostearic (7.43–15.76%) and palmitic (5.06–7.38%), containing 94–96% of total detected fatty acids. The range of total tocochromanols was between 118.2 and 163.6 mg/100 g of oil. Independent of the cultivar, γ-T was the main tocochromanol and constituted between 61 and 83% of the total identified tocopherol and tocotrienol homologues in all studied samples. The total content of the carotenoids was between 0.51–1.75 mg/100 g of oil. The concentration of squalene in different sour cherry kernel oils was reached between 65.8–102.8 mg/100 g of oil. The concentration of sterols varied significantly for all of the studied cultivars and ranged between 313.6–1041.3 mg/100 g of oil. The β-sitosterol constituted 77–82% of the total sterol content detected in the samples studied. Two significant correlations were found between oil yield and the total content of sterols (r = −0.974, p ≤ 0.001) and carotenoids (r = −0.915, p ≤ 0.01) in sour cherry kernel oils.

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