Peony seed oil is full of nutrition and exert positive effects on human's health. The influences of seven solvents (isopropanol, acetone, Hx:Iso (n-hexane/isopropanol, 3:2 v/v), Chf:Me (chloroform/methanol, 1:1 v/v), ethyl acetate, n-hexane, and petroleum ether) on the oil yields, lipid composition, minor components and antioxidant capacity of peony seed oil were compared in this study. Results indicated that the highest oil yield (35.63%) was obtained using Hx:Iso, while Chf:Me showed the best extraction efficiency for linolenic acid (43.68%), trilinolenoyl-glycerol (15.00%), and dilinolenoyl-linoleoyl-glycerol (18.01%). For minor components, Chf:Me presented a significant advantage in the extraction of tocopherol (601.49 mg/kg), and the peony seed oil extracted with petroleum ether had the highest sterols (4089.82 mg/kg) and squalene contents (66.26 mg/kg). Although the use of isopropanol led to a lower sterol content, its extracts showed a significant higher polyphenol content (68.88 mg GAE/kg) than other solvents and exhibited the strongest antioxidant capacity. Additionally, correlation analysis revealed that polyphenols were the most important minor component for predicting the antioxidant capacity of peony seed oil. The above information is valuable for manufacturers to select suitable solvents to produce peony seed oil with the required levels of fatty acids and minor components for targeted end-use.
Keywords: antioxidant capacity; correlations analysis; fatty acid profile; minor components; peony seed oil; solvent extraction.