RESEARCH ARTICLE Fatty acids, phytochemical composition and antioxidant potential of pearl millet oil Amor Slama 1 • Ammar Cherif 2 • Faouzi Sakouhi 3 • Sadok Boukhchina 3 • Leila Radhouane 4 Received: 22 April 2019 / Revised: 6 August 2019 / Accepted: 12 August 2019 Ó Bundesamt fu ¨ r Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit (BVL) 2019 Abstract Millet is one of the most important cereals in the world regarding its domestic and commercial utilization. In spite of the extensive production of numerous millet species as main staple food grain in many developing countries in Africa and Asia, little information is available on pearl millet oil in terms of its composition of bioactive lipophilic and phenolic compounds. The aim of the present study was to describe the importance of pearl millet seeds by extracting their oil and determining its composition regarding lipids, carotenoids and phenolic compounds, and its antioxidant potential. The content of total lipids in pearl millet seeds was 5.1%, similar to that in maize grain. Several fatty acids were detected; the major fatty acid was linoleic acid (47.5%). The content of total unsaturated fatty acids in pearl millet oil was 77.2%. Pearl millet oil was rich in omega-6 (x-6) fatty acids and it can be considered a highly unsaturated oil. This oil also has a high total phenolic content (220 mg/100 g) and antioxidant activity (79.2%). Two flavonoids (quercetin: 1.7 lg/g and catechin: 1.2 lg/g) were found in pearl millet, which are commonly recorded in other species such as sorghum, amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa. The results showed remarkably high levels of carotenoids in pearl millet (10.2 mg/kg) compared to other millet species. Pearl millet seeds may be used in future to create a new source of edible oil due to the presence of several unsaturated and essential fatty acids. Furthermore, foods manufactured from pearl millet flour will have a high content of phenolic compounds and carotenoids as well as antioxidant activity, which support human health. Keywords Pearl millet seeds  Fatty acids  Phenolic compounds  Carotenoids  Antioxidant activity 1 Introduction Millet is an essential source of nutrients and dietary energy for people in many countries of Africa and Asia (Rani et al. 2018; Krishnan and Meera 2018). In Tunisia, pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is the most cultivated millet species and has generated high interest as a substitute for sorghum. This cereal is cultivated in the south of Tunisia as a com- pletely irrigated summer annual crop in about 3000 ha (Radhouane 2008). Pearl millet is a rich source of protein (Agrawal et al. 2016). However, little information is cur- rently available concerning its lipid composition, phenolic acids, flavonoids, carotenoids, and antioxidant activity. Today, there is a growing interest in these compounds due to their benefits for human health (Falcinelli et al. 2018). Studying these parameters is very important for many reasons. Cereal lipids represent a valuable source of essential fatty acids and vitamins, such as vitamin E and pro-vitamin A (Morrison 1977). Fatty acids are transport vehicles for vitamins A, D, E and K (Petrovic ´ et al. 2010). Cereal oils contain essential nutrients for human life, such as clinically important saturated and unsaturated fatty acids (Mehmood et al. 2008). Cereal products are on the increase as favorite foods in urban areas, such as cakes, cookies, pasta, bread and snack Journal of Consumer Protection and Food Safety Journal fu ¨ r Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00003-019-01250-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. & Amor Slama slamaamor@yahoo.fr 1 Sciences Faculty of Bizerte, University of Carthage, Bizerte, Tunisia 2 Higher Institute of Medical Technology of Tunis, University of Manar, Tunis, Tunisia 3 Sciences Faculty of Tunis, University of Manar, Tunis, Tunisia 4 National Agricultural Research Institute of Tunisia, University of Carthage, Ariana, Tunisia 123 Journal of Consumer Protection and Food Safety https://doi.org/10.1007/s00003-019-01250-4