~ 9 ~ Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2017; 6(3): 09-13 E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 JPP 2017; 6(3): 09-13 Received: 03-03-2017 Accepted: 04-04-2017 Govind B Yenge Ph. D. Scholar, Department of Agricultural Process Engineering, MPKV, Rahuri, India HG More Ex-Director of Extension, MPKV, Rahuri, India SS Thorat Professor and Head, Department of Food Sci. and Tech., MPKV, Rahuri, India RM Naik Professor and Head, Department of Biochemistry, MPKV, Rahuri, India CA Nimbalkar Associate Professor, Department of Statistics., MPKV, Rahuri, India Correspondence Govind B Yenge Ph. D. Scholar, Department of Agricultural Process Engineering, MPKV, Rahuri, India Storage study of garden cress (Lepidium sativum L.) seed oil Govind B Yenge, HG More, SS Thorat, RM Naik and CA Nimbalkar Abstract Packaging and storage conditions affect the quality of edible plant oils, including garden cress oil, with high content of unsaturated fatty acids, which are subjected to hydrolytic and oxidative deterioration during storage. Aim of this research was to investigate the effect of amber coloured glass (AGL) bottle and transparent polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle on storage stability of garden cress seed oil (GCO). The bottles were filled with GCO and stored at room and refrigerated condition. Peroxide value (PV), acid value (AV) and iodine value (IV) of oil were analyzed for every 30 day for 90 days. Results revealed the storage period had significant effect of stability of GCO. Storage temperature affected the stability of oil more than the packaging material. Lowest PV, AV and highest IV was observed for AGL bottle at every stage during the storage whereas highest PV, AV and lowest IV was observed for oil stored in PET bottle at room temperature Keywords: Garden cress oil, storage, packaging material, storage temperature, peroxide value 1. Introduction Vegetable oil demand has increased due to increasing domestic and industrial uses. Nutritionally, vegetable oil provides calories, vitamins, and EFA in the human diet in an easily digested form, and at relatively low cost Akinoso and Oni (2012) [3] . It contains good amount of lignans and antioxidants. Garden cress (Lepidium sativum L.) seeds contain 24% oil in which 32–34% is α‐linolenic acid (ALA). Garden cress oil (GCO) has very high amount of tocopherols (1699 mg/kg), compared to other oils (Diwakar et al. 2010) [6] . In recent years, human dietary lipids intake has shifted more towards PUFAs due to their cholesterol lowering effect compared to saturated lipids. The increased consumption of vegetable oils (sunflower, corn oil, safflower, soybean oil) rich in n-6 PUFA has shifted the n-6 to n-3 PUFA ratio to 50:1 instead of a recommended ratio of 10:1 or 2:1. Garden cress oil has Linoleic acid: Linolenic acid (LA: ALA) ratio in the range of 1:4–2:3, which could give it nutritional advantages over the currently available ALA-rich plant oils in altering the n- 6/n-3 ratio in vivo. Oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids is the main reaction responsible for the degradation of lipids (Muik et. al., 2005; Morales et al., 2011) [17, 16] . Indeed, the oxidation level of oil and fat is an important quality characteristic for food industry. Under mild conditions, molecular oxygen reacts with the double bonds following a free radical mechanism, and so-called auto- oxidation reaction takes place. The oxidation of fats primarily means deterioration of their quality and safety for consumption, and as a result economic loss can be expected. In addition, oxygen species that have carcinogenic effects are created during the oxidation, and they can lead to distortion of the cardiovascular system and can decrease the safety of oil for consumption (Pezzuto and Park, 2002) [20] . Oxidation, and the formation of peroxides, occurs during oil extraction and processing and can continue during storage. Peroxides are intermediate oxidation products of oil which lead to the formation of a complex mixture of volatile compounds such as aldehydes, ketones, hydrocarbons, alcohols and esters responsible for the deterioration of oil flavour (Pristouri et al. 2010) [21] . The amount of oxygen dissolved in oil is sufficient to oxidize the oil to a peroxide value of approximately 10 meq.kg -1 in the dark (Przybylski and Eskin, 1988) [22] . Light, oxygen, humidity and temperature are some of the external factors that adversely affect the composition and quality characteristics of fats and oils during and after processing. Light is the cause and initiator of the reactions that lead to the spoilage of fats and oils. Although fat does not absorb visible light spectrum, the oxidation can be induced by light which was absorbed by the oil impurities (for example, the pigment chlorophyll). It is generally accepted interpretation that auto-oxidation of fat includes formation of free radicals (Grujic et al. 2011) [8] .