Phytosterols with an Emphasis on Pomegranate Oil

Zeev Wiesman

Phyto-Lipid Biotechnology Lab (PLBL)
 Department of Biotechnology Engineering
 Ben Gurion University of the Negev
 Beer Sheva, Israel

     wiesman@bgu.ac.il

Phytosterols are well known as an important component in food, cosmetics products and as a valuable nutraceutical product. In plant tissues, pytosterols serve as stabilizers of membranes. They are delivered in the lipid fractions and contribute to the ability to protection of fatty acids from rapid oxidation. Due to their involvement in wide range of bioactivities in the human body including reduction of cholesterol related cardiovascular disorders, hormonal imbalance, and many other physiological effects, the demand of phytosterols significantly increased in the recent years.

The analytical chemistry methods for phytosterols determination are relatively complicated and time consuming, initially involving lipids separation from the plant extract and than further separation of the sterols from the triglycerides and finally determination in gas chromatography and verification in GC-MS.

Pomegranate oil was found as one of the richer sources of phytosterols. The level of fifteen different phytosterols were found to be significantly higher in pomegranate oil comparison to soy, olive almond, canola and many other oils. The stability of pomegranate oil containing about 80% of punicic acid (18:3), is mainly related to the unusual high level of phytosterols.

Prof. Zeev Wiesman is a member of the Department of Biotechnology Engineering, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel. He is leading the Phyto-Lipid Biotechnology Lab (PLBL).