Is geographic origin a good marker for cumin seed oil (Cuminum cyminum L.)?

We evaluated the chemical variability of cumin oil produced in different regions of Morocco to verify if a geographic origin label represents useful information to depict cumin (Cuminum cyminum) fixed-oil quality oil composition, assessed by chromatographic analysis, revealed significant differences among regions for some investigated traits. Petroselinic acid was consistently shown to be the main fatty acid with amounts between 54.9% and 60.9%. The variation for linoleic acid was a little smaller ranging between 30.1% and 31.3%. The oil is characterised by high content of alpha-tocopherol (20.9-50.3 mg/100 g) and alpha-tocotrienol (37.2 - 72.4 mg/100 g). In addition, our results showed that oil content varies between 16.3% and 25.7%. The oil showed a high oxidative stability in the Rancimat test at 110 degrees C varying from 25 - 34 h, depending on the region of harvest. Combining our results and literature data, we suggest that information on seed quality would be more useful for consumers or industrials than the geographic origin.