Oil content, tocopherol composition and fatty acid patterns of the seeds of 51 Cannabis sativa L. genotypes

The oil content, the tocopherol composition, the plastochromanol-8 (P-8) content and the fatty acid composition (19 fatty acids) of the seed of 51 hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) genotypes were studied in the 2000 and 2001 seasons. The oil content of the hemp seed ranged from 26.25% (w/w) to 37.50%. Analysis of variance revealed significant effects of genotype, year and of the interaction (genotype × year) on the oil content. The oil contents of the 51 genotypes in 2000 and 2001 were correlated (r = 0.37**) and averaged 33.19 ± 1.45% in 2000 and 31.21 ± 0.96% in 2001. The γ-tocopherol, α-tocopherol, δ-tocopherol, P-8- and β-tocopherol contents of the 51 genotypes averaged 21.68 ± 3.19, 1.82 ± 0.49, 1.20 ± 0.40, 0.18 ± 0.07 and 0.16 ± 0.04 mg 100g−1 of seeds, respectively (2000 and 2001 data pooled). Hierarchical clustering of the fatty acid data did not group the hemp genotypes according to their geographic origin. The γ-linolenic acid yield of hemp (3–30 kg ha−1) was similar to the γ-linolenic acid yield of plant species that are currently used as sources of γ-linolenic acid (borage (19–30 kg ha−1), evening primrose (7–30 kg ha−1)). The linoleic acid yield of hemp (129–326 kg ha−1) was similar to flax (102–250 kg ha−1), but less than in sunflower (868–1320 kg ha−1). Significant positive correlations were detected between some fatty acids and some tocopherols. Even though the average content of P-8 in hemp seeds was only 1/120th of the average γ-tocopherol content, P-8 content was more closely correlated with the unsaturated fatty acid content than γ-tocopherol or any other tocopherol fraction. The average broad-sense heritabilities of the oil content, the antioxidants (tocopherols and P-8) and the fatty acids were 0.53, 0.14 and 0.23, respectively. The genotypes Fibrimon 56, P57, Juso 31, GB29, Beniko, P60, FxT, Félina 34, Ramo and GB18 were capable of producing the largest amounts of high quality hemp oil.