Abstract:
Oilseed crops are widely cultivated and are related to nutrition and human health as
valuable nutraceutical sources with valuable biological properties. The growing demand for oil
plants used in human and animal nutrition or for the processing industry has contributed to the
diversification and development of a new variety of oil crops. Increased oil crop diversity, besides
ensuring reduced sensitivity to pests and climate conditions, has also led to improved nutritional
values. In order to enable oil crop cultivation to become commercially sustainable, a comprehensive
characterization of newly created varieties of oilseeds, including their nutritional and chemical
composition, is required. In this study, two varieties of safflower and white and black mustard were
investigated as alternative oil species for nutritional parameters, mainly protein, fat, carbohydrate,
moisture, ash, polyphenols, flavonoids, chlorophylls contents, acids and mineral composition, and
compared with those of two different genotypes of rapeseeds as a traditional oil crop plant. The
proximate analysis found that the highest oil content was found in the oil rape NS Svetlana genotype
(33.23%), while the lowest was in black mustard (25.37%). The protein content varies from around 26%
in safflower samples to 34.63%, determined in white mustard. High content of unsaturated fatty acids
and low content of saturated fatty acid was observed in the analyzed samples. In mineral analysis,
the dominant elements were phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium, in descending order.
The observed oil crops are also good sources of microelements, including iron, copper, manganese
and zinc, accompanied by high antioxidant activity due to the presence of significant amounts of
polyphenolic and flavonoid compounds.
