Abstract The study is aimed to isolate and analyse the lipids (fatty acids, phospholipids and phytosterols) of three plant products commonly used as food ingredients (Bridelia ferruginea stem bark (Ira), Monodora myristica seed kernel (Ariyo) and Zingiber officinale Roscoe (Ajo)). The fat (%), total fatty acid (%) and energy (kJ/100g) had range values of 1.40 – 30.5, 1.12 – 24.4 and 41.4 – 903 respectively. Saturated fatty acids (SFA) ranged from 17.2 – 46.2 %, total monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) values ranged from 20.2- 51.5, n-3 and n-6 fatty acids values ranged from 0.724 – 2.50 and 26.4 – 61.4 respectively. Phospholipids level was averagely high at total values of 110 – 263 mg/100g. Among the phytosterols, sitosterol was the most concentrated (28.2 – 69.0 mg/100g) within a total value of 37.5 102 mg/100g. Chi-square (X2) analysis showed that significant differences existed at α = 0.05 among the following parameters: SFA, MUFAcis, total MUFA, n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), n-6/n-3, LA/ALA, Phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylcholine, Phosphatidylserine, Phosphatidylinositol, Stigmasterol, 5-Avenasterol and sitosterol. The analyzed plant samples were averagely low in total fatty acids, phospholipids and phytosterols, hence their consumption, as food sources either as spice or soup ingredients may not result in the consumers consuming fats above the recommended healthy guidelines.
Keywords local spices, fatty acids, phospholipids, phytosterols composition.