Fatty acid and sterol composition of tea seed oils: Their comparison by the “FancyTiles” approach

Confusion among tea seed oils from Sect. Thea, Oleifera and Camellia in Camellia is a widespread problem in research and production. In this work, 22 fatty acids, squalene and 13 phytosterols in the three groups of tea seed oils from 16 Chinese regions were analyzed with GC-FID and GC-MS respectively. Thea oils were significantly higher in linoleic (C18:2) and palmitic (C16:0) acids but lower in oleic acid (C18:1) than Camellia and Oleifera oils while the latter two overlapped in major fatty acids. Similarly, Camellia and Oleifera oils clustered together based on the data of squalene and 12 phytosterols while Thea oils branched from them in HCA. Finally, a “FancyTiles” model was constructed to describe the fatty acids, squalene and phytosterols in a plot of semi-quantitative strategy. The results supply the basic data of the three types of tea seed oils and reveal the similarities and differences among them.