
==== Front
Biotechnol Rep (Amst)
Biotechnol Rep (Amst)
Biotechnology Reports
2215-017X
Elsevier

S2215-017X(24)00031-6
10.1016/j.btre.2024.e00858
e00858
Research Article
Evaluation of seed oil from Hura crepitans, Trichosanthes cucumerina and Thevetia nerifolia
Ominowa Esther Anuoluwapo a
Olonisakin Adebisi a
Femi-Oloye Oluwabunmi Peace bc
Osunla Charles Ayodeji d
Oloye Femi Francis oloye@pitt.edu
ae⁎
a Department of Chemical Sciences, Faculty of Science, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Ondo State, PMB001, Nigeria
b Department of Animal and Environmental Biology, Faculty of Science, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Ondo State, PMB001, Nigeria
c Division of Biological and Health Sciences, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, Bradford, PA, 16701, USA
d Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Ondo State, PMB 001, Nigeria
e Department of Chemistry, Division of Physical and Computational Sciences, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, Bradford, PA, 16701, USA
⁎ Corresponding author. oloye@pitt.edu
11 9 2024
12 2024
11 9 2024
44 e0085812 12 2023
2 9 2024
8 9 2024
© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
2024

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Highlight

• Hura crepitans (HC), Thevetia nerifolia (TN) and Trichosanthes cucumerina (TC) are seeds of no significant value in Ondo State Nigeria.

• Physical and chemical properties of oil vary with climatic conditions and soil.

• The physical and chemical properties of the seed oils showed promising properties which means the oil from the study area are unique and possesses some fatty acid not common.

• The dominant fatty acids were 49 % linoleic acid, 37 % pentadecenoic acid, and 38 % cis-10-heptadecenenoic acid for Hura crepitans (HC), Thevetia nerifolia (TN) and Trichosanthes cucumerina (TC) will dictate area where each oil can be employed.

• TN have the highest cetane number, biofuel potential and higher heating value and thus the best seed oil for biofuel.

• HC have the highest polyunsaturation and will be very good for Azidohydrin, an oleochemical.

• TC have broad spectrum of activity to bacterial and fungi pathogens.

The oil contents and fatty acid composition of three non-edible seed oils extracted using Soxhlet extraction with hexane as the solvent were presented. The physical and chemical properties of the oils were determined from which cetane number, biofuel potential, higher heating values, and antimicrobial activities were assessed. The dominant fatty acids were 49 % linoleic acid, 37 % pentadecenoic acid, and 38 % cis-10-heptadecenenoic acid for Hura crepitans (HC), Thevetia nerifolia (TN) and Trichosanthes cucumerina (TC), respectively. The seed oils were majorly unsaturated, with HC having the highest degree of unsaturation. Acid value, saponification value, iodine value, and free fatty acids were low compared to many reported values in literature. The cetane values were generally high because the oils have a reasonable amount of saturated fatty acid, with TN having the highest cetane number. The low iodine value and saponification value make the biofuel potential and higher heating value to be high with TN having the highest in both and thus the best seed oil for biofuel. However, TN and HC have no antimicrobial activity to Klebsiella pneumoniae (gram -ve), Staphylococcus aureus (gram +ve), Escherichia coli (gram -ve), Bacillus subtilis, Enterobacter aerogenes, Candida albican, Rhizopus stolonifer, Fusarium Solani, Aspergillus flavus and Candida tropicalis, while TC has broad spectrum of activity against all tested bacteria and fungi, except Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Keywords

Trichosanthes cucumerina
Hura crepitans
Thevetia nerifolia
Fatty acid
Linoleic acid
Pentadecenoic acid
CIS-10-heptadecenenoic
Biofuel
Antimicrobial activity
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pmc1 Introduction

Seed oil is becoming more important because of its domestic and industrial applications. Seed oil can be extracted from both edible and non-edible sources [1], however, considerations are being given to non-edible sources because it does not compete with human or animal foods. Some of the edibles fruits from which oil has been extracted in the past are palm fruits [2], soybean, rapseed, canola, cotton, cashew, peanut [3,4], and salvia (Lamiaceae) [5], while example of non-edible oil include, Rubber seed, Hura crepitans, Trichosanthes cucumerina, Jatropha curcas, and Thevetia nerifolia. Some of the notable application of non-edible oil include antimicrobial activity. The major disadvantage of non-edible oil is high amount of free fatty acid content (FFA), which may cause the oil to quickly undergo multiple reactions, therefore, it will require additional step of pre-treatment for it to be useful for industrial application. Also, too much FFA is not good for consumption. However, it is well known that the extraction solvent can affect the quantity of FFA composition in the extracted seed oil and that extraction methodology is very important [2].

Generally, fatty acid composition of any oil will determine its applicability for domestic and/ or industrial use. For example, seed oil with low saturated fatty acid, high mono-unsaturated, low poly-unsaturated fatty acid is desirable for biodiesel [6]. Oil rich in unsaturated compounds could be a good source of oleochemicals for polymer and other industrial applications [7]. Azidohydrin, an oleochemical has been synthesized from Hura crepitans because the oil was rich in Linoleic acid [8].

The percentage of the fatty acid in an oil is very important, it generally varied between 95 - 98 % [9,10]. Since oil contain fatty acid and some minor contents such as mono- and diglycerides, phospholipids, sterols, tocopherols/tocotrienols, free fatty acids, vitamins, pigments, proteins, water, squalene, carotenoids, phytosterols and phenolics [[9], [10], [11]]. The content of the minor part of the oil plays important role on the physical and chemicals properties of the oil.

The yield of the oil is also an important thing to put into consideration when selecting a seed for oil. Hura crepitans have a relatively high yield compared to other sources (Adewuyi et al., 2010), however various yields amount has been reported in literature (Table 1). Nevertheless, oil yield is not the only factor that determined the suitability of seed for commercial or domestic application [6]. The source of the seed, and the extraction protocol both play a significant role on the percentage yield of the oil [1].Table 1 Percentage yield of oil extracted from three selected seeds.

Table 1:Seed	Oil Yield	References	
Hura crepitans	51.43 ± 0.22 %	[12]	
	37.78±0.81 %	[13]	
	37.75 ± 0.40 %	[3]	
	36.4 ± 0.00 %	[14]	
	34.80±0.00 %	[15]	
	12.45 ± 0.3 %	Azuaga et al., 2019	
Trichosanthes cucumerina	27.81 ± 0.4 %	[1]	
	46.3 ± 4.00 %	[16]	
	51.53±0.00 %	[17]	
	47.7 ± 2.05 %	[18]	
Thevetia nerifolia	67±0.00 %	[19]	
	28.45±0.00 %	[20]	
	65.45±0.05 %	Ikyenge et al., 2015	
	47.77±0.03 %	[21]	

The yield as well as the fatty acid composition from each geographical location varied based on weather and environmental conditions [10]. Therefore, this study focused on the oil yield of three common seed in Ondo State, Nigeria using Soxhlet extraction and n-hexane as the solvent. The fatty acid composition of each of the oil, as well as their physical and chemical properties are carefully evaluated.

2 Material and methods

n-Hexane was obtained from Sigma Aldrich, Germany and used without further purification. Hura crepitans seeds were collected from around the campus of Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba Akoko Ondo State, Nigeria. Thevetia nerifolia seeds were collected from Ala government quarters Akure, Ondo state, Nigeria and Trichosanthes cucumerina seeds were collected from Oda Road, Akure, Ondo state, Nigeria. All the seeds, collected in August 2017, were obtained from the ripe, matured, and dry seeds. The dried seeds were collected and cracked to remove the kernel, the dried kernel was grounded with a kitchen blender and homogenized to fine powder. The resulting powder was put in a separate air-tight plastic container and packaged in sample bottles ready for used.

2.1 Oil extraction

Oils were recovered from the powder seeds using Soxhlet extraction method according to the method described earlier [2] with little or no modification. Approximately 300 mL n-hexane was put in a round bottom flask and placed on the heating mantle after which a known weight (10 g) of the dried powders were included in the thimble of the Soxhlet extraction apparatus. The experiment was continued until no traces of oil could be seen in the thimble (or for a minimum of 6 h) at 323 K. The extracts were subjected to clean up using a rotary evaporator to remove any traces of solvent. The oil was further purified by adding it to separating funnel and 1 M sodium hydroxide and ethyl acetate were added. Oil was separated from the aqueous phase and the aqueous layer was extracted multiple time until no oil remains in the aqueous phase. The recovered oil was dried for 2 h in an oven, allowed to cool in a desiccator for 1 h and the oil extracts were sent for GC–MS analyses (Fig. 1). The seed oil was calculated using Eq. (1).(1) %oilyield=Massofoil(kg)Massofseedx100

Fig. 1 Pictorial representation of the method involved in the extraction of seed oil and esterification reaction.

Fig 1:

2.2 Oil characterisation

2.2.1 Analysis of fatty acid component

Fatty acids methyl ester (FAMES) was prepared by adding potassium methoxide into 50 mg of the extracted content in a separating funnel. The sample was saponified (esterified) for five minutes at 95 °C with 3.4 mL potassium methoxide (0.5 M of potassium hydroxide in dry methanol). The mixture was neutralized by using 0.7 M HCl, then 3 mL of the 14 % boron triflouride in methanol was added. The mixture was heated for 5 min at 90 °C to achieve complete methylation process. The Fatty Acids methyl ester was thrice extracted from the mixture with redistilled n-hexane. The content was concentrated to 1 mL for gas chromatography analysis and 1 µL was injected into the injection port of gas chromatography.

The FAMES was injected into HP 6890 Powered with HP Chem Station Rev.A 09.01 (1206) software equipped with Flame Ionization Detector (FID). The column was packed with HP INNOWax, 30.0 m column length, 0.25 mm internal dimension, 0.25 µL film thickness. The column initial temperature was 60 °C, later increase at the rate of 12 °C/min for 20 min and maintained for 2 min and then increased by 15 °C/min and maintained constant for 8 min. Injector temperature was split injection, split ratio was 20:1 and detector temperature were 320 °C. The carrier gas was nitrogen, while hydrogen pressure was at 22 psi and compressed air pressure was also maintained at 35 psi. FAMES peaks were identified by comparison of their retention time with those of a standard mixture obtained from signs chemical company. The peaks were integrated with HP Chem Station Rev.A 09.01 (1206) software.

2.2.2 Physical and chemical analysis

The physical properties of the oils extracted were determined according to established protocols. Specific gravity was determined following ASTM D.1298. Moisture content was determined according to AOAC. Peroxide value, saponification value, pH, color, and iodine value were determined following methods reported earlier [17]. The acid value, and free fatty acid were determined according to an established method ([2] and the references therein). Briefly, the free fatty acid was determined by multiplying the acid value with a factor that equals the molecular weight of the oleic acid (282.4 g mol-1) divided by ten times the molecular weight of the potassium hydroxide (56.1 g mol-1). While cetane number (CN), biofuel potential (Hµ), and higher heating values (HHV), were determined by Eqs. (2), 3, and 4 as previously described [22].(2) CN=46.3+5458SV−(0.225×IV)

(3) Hμ=47,645−4.187IV−38.3SV

(4) HHV=49.43−0.041×SV−0.015IV

Where, IV, and SV are iodine and saponification value, respectively. Biofuel potential (Hµ) is measured in KJ/Kg, cetane number is unitless and HHV is measured in MJ/Kg.

2.3 Microbiological tests of seed oil

The reference bacterial and fungal isolates used in this study are of clinical and environmental origin and were obtained from the Department of Microbiology Laboratory of Adekunle Ajasin University Health Centre Akungba Akoko, Ondo State. The antimicrobial effect of three plant oil were tested against five bacterial pathogens in (Klebsiella pneumoniae (gram -ve), Staphylococcus aureus (gram +ve), Escherichia coli (gram -ve), Bacillus subtilis, Enterobacter aerogenes) and five fungal pathogens (Candida albican, Rhizopus stolonifer, Fusarium Solani, Aspergillus flavus and Candida tropicalis) using the agar well diffusion method [23,24].

The bacterial isolates were subcultured into nutritional broth before use, while the fungal isolates were cultured in potato dextrose media and allowed to sporulate for seven days before being harvested. The 18-h-old bacterial culture was standardised with a 0.5 McFarland standard at a concentration of 106 cell-fold units per millilitre. Following sporulation, the fungal spores were collected by applying a solution of sterile glycerol and distilled water to the plate's surface and gently scraping the spores with a sterile glass rod. The spores were subsequently standardized, prior to their usage. Using a sterilized glass spreader, one hundred microliters of each standardized bacterial and fungal suspension was uniformly distributed over Mueller-Hinton agar medium for bacteria and malt extract medium for the fungus respectively.

The agar medium was punctured with a sterile cork borer, leaving holes approximately 5 mm away from the plate's edge. Plates containing bacterial cultures were treated with a solution of the extract at a dosage of 25 mg/mL, whereas plates containing fungus were treated with a solution of 35 mg/mL. To facilitate the sufficient diffusion of the extract solution into the medium, the plates were left on the laboratory bench for one hour. To examine zones of inhibition, the plates containing bacterial culture were incubated at 37 °C for 24 h, whereas those containing fungus were incubated at 25 °C for about 96 h. Sterile distilled water and antibiotics (tetracycline and nystatin) were used as negative and positive controls respectively.

The diameters of zones of inhibition were measured using the meter rule and the value for each organism was recorded.

3 Results and discussion

The physiochemical properties such as pH value, specific gravity, acid value, perioxide value, saponification value, free fatty acid, iodine value, and moisture content value are important because they play significant role in determining the suitability of oil. Table 2 showed that the three seed oils have different properties, which is expected since they are from different seed sources. The percentage oils yields were within the common range shown in Table 1. Trichosanthes cucumerina seeds gave highest oil followed by Hura crepitans seeds and then Thevetial nerifolia seeds.Table 2 Physical and chemical properties of the extracted seed oils.

Table 2:	Hura Crepitans	Thevetia nerifolia	Triscosanthes cucumerina	
Yield (%)	53.1	46.5	57.5	
Colour	Yellow	Light yellow	Greenish brown	
pH	6.30	6.27	5.83	
Specific gravity	0.90	0.90	0.90	
Acid value (mgKOH/g)	0.56	0.28	0.24	
Peroxide value (meq/Kg)	12.00	4.67	6.87	
Saponification (mgKOH/g)	56.1	42.08	59.75	
Free fatty acid (mg g-1)	0.28	0.14	1.21	
Iodine value (g/iodine/100 g)	74.82	60.75	34.37	
Moisture content (%)	4	8	7	
Cetane number	127	162	130	
Biofuel potential (KJ/Kg)	45,183.10	45,778.98	45,212.67	
Higher heating value (MJ/Kg)	46.01	46.79	46.46	

The fatty acids composition of Hura crepitans, Thevetial nerifolia and Trichosanthes cucumerina seed oils are shown in figure S1–3 and summarized in Table 3. The fatty acid with the highest composition in each of the oils are different from each other, with 49 % linoleic acid, 37 % pentadecenoic acid, and 38 % cis-10-heptadecenenoic acid for HC, TN, and TC, respectively. Thus, the ratio of the fatty acid contents varied with the nature of the seed. Some fatty acid present in one seed oil were absent in the other, for example, cis-10-heptadecenoic acid and pentadecenoic acid, which were the dominant fatty acid in TC and TN, where absent in HC. The total number of fatty acids in the extracted seed oil were 9, 7, and 5 for HC, TN, and TC, respectively.Table 3 Percentage composition of fatty acids extracted from the seed oil plant.

Table 3	Retention time	HC	TN	TC	
Tridecyclic acid, C13:0	17.926	1.79	0.00	0.00	
Myristic acid, C14:0	18.334	11.54	0.00	14.86	
Pentadecenoic acid C15:1	20.061	0.00	37.34	0.00	
Palmitic acid, C16:0	18.915	0.00	21.28	13.99	
Palmitoleic acid, C16:1	18.346	24.21	0.00	0.00	
Cis-10-Heptadecenoic acid, C17:1	20.046	0.00	0.00	37.54	
Linoleic acid, C18:2	20.034	49.20	28.43	31.87	
Stearic acid, C18:0	20.232	4.68	5.96	0.00	
Arachidic acids, C20:0	24.231	1.58	0.00	0.00	
2-methyloctacosane, C29:0	26.589	1.88	2.35	0.00	
Tetratriacontane, C34:0	25.124	1.98	0.00	0.00	
Hexatriacontane, C36:0	27.945	3.16	2.08	1.74	
Tetratetracontane C44:0	27.240	0.00	2.56	0.00	
Total Fatty acid (%)		67.16	80.28	63.13	
Value reported are expressed as percentage of total fatty acid.

The seed oils are majorly unsaturated with HC oil having > 73 % unsaturation and TN and TC having 65 and 69 % unsaturation, respectively (Table 4). Oil reach in MUFA are expected to be good for biodiesel, and generally oil with unsaturation can be used for many applications. PUFA/SFA index showed HC oil to 1.85, which is an indication that the oil will be useful for any application where higher amounts of poly unsaturated fatty acid are desirable.Table 4 Fatty acid composition of the extracted oil grouped into saturation and unsaturation.

Table 4:SEED OIL	SFA	MUFA	PUFA	TUFA	P/S index	
Hura crepitans (%)	26.59	24.21	49.20	73.41	1.85	
Thevetia nerifolia (%)	34.18	37.37	28.45	65.82	0.83	
Tricosanthes cucumerina (%)	30.59	37.54	31.87	69.41	1.04	

The color of seed oils from Hura crepitans, Thevetial nerifolia and Trichosanthes cucumerina are yellow, light yellow and greenish brown, respectively. The color indicates the presences of carotenoids, which are soluble in oils [4]. Carotenoids are highly unsaturated hydrocarbon and when oils are hydrogenated, hydrogenation of the pigments also occurs with a reduction in color. However, the oils are stable at the room temperature without change in color for weeks. The pH of the seed oils is 6.30, 6.27, and 5.83, respectively, which showed a slight acidity. Specific gravities of the oils were the same and <1, indicating that the oils are less dense than water and assured absence of unreasonable amount of heavy element.

A higher acid values signifies the presence of large sum of carboxylic acid group. Such high acids in oils are caused by degradation and combustion [2]. The age quality and degree of oil purity during storage and processing can be known through the acid value [2]. The acid values are 0.24, 0.28, and 0.56 mgKOH/g for TN, TC, and HC, respectively, indicating that the degradation in seed oil from HC will be twice compared to others. Although the acid value of HC is higher compared TN and TC, it is below 0.6, which had earlier been reported as the EN maximum recommendation for application in biodiesel [8]. The acid value obtained for HC is higher compared to 0.21 [8], but lower compared to 4.1 [25] and 27.09 [4]. Therefore, the acid value of the seed oil varied not only because of the type of the seed, but also the locations where the seed was grown. Hence, the acid value obtained for HC seed oil and other seeds oil in this study is better compared to what had been reported earlier in many literatures.

Oils with low acidity and low free fatty acids are desirable for domestic and biodiesel [26], however, oils with high free fatty acid could be useful for production of liquid soaps, paint, and cosmetics. Free fatty acids values obtained were 0.28, 0.14, and 1.21 % respectively. Low free fatty acids contained in the oil was responsible for the low acid values.

Peroxide values (PV) show the tendency of oil to deteriorate during storage. Therefore, the higher the PV the higher the possibility of oxidative deterioration of oils. Hence, to prevent rancidity of oils the PV should not be above 10 – 20 meq/kg fat [27]. Therefore, both TN and TC oils are better than HC because HC oil has probability to degrade two times faster compared to other oils. The oil with high number of unsaturated contents is more prone to rancidity because it absorbs more oxygen molecules, contributing to higher peroxide value. The PV of HC is slightly higher compared to 9 meq/kg [25]. Low peroxide values also provided an added advantage as a potential feedstock to fossil fuel. Most importantly, the moisture contents of all the oil were lower than 10, which is an indication that the rate of degradation in these oils will be low. Another factor that hastens degradation is moisture content of the oil. The higher the moisture content, the higher the degradation potential. For example, the moisture content of HC oil was 4 which is <7 reported earlier [4]. A lower moisture content is preferable because it will prolong the shelf life of an oil, this ensuring storage stability.

Saponification values obtained from the oil were generally low compared to what has been reported earlier for the same oil, but from different sources. The HC oil was about four times lower compared to 210.10 ± 0.40 mg KOH/g [3,8]. Oils with higher saponification values contain high proportion of short chain fatty acids [22], therefore the values obtained for the three oils indicate that the oils contained few numbers of carboxylic functional group fatty acids. Hence, the oils contained long chain fatty acids, which may result in low free fatty acid content. Since, saponification value has inverse relationship with both molecular weight and carbon length, then oil with lower saponification value has the highest number of long chain fatty acid. Thus, TN oil has the highest number of long chain fatty acid, followed by HC oil. This observation correlated with the percentage of fatty acid in each of the oil. TN has the highest percentage of fatty acid followed by HC, then TC (Table 3).

Iodine value is a key indicator of the degree of unsaturation of the oil [22]. Iodine value were 74.82 mg/I2/g, 60.75 mg/I2/g and 34.27 mg/I2/g, which are low compared to the maximum of 120 mg/I2/g [22]. Therefore, the HC, TC, and TN oils generally contained reasonable amounts of saturated fatty acids, which will make the oils to be stable and not easily prone to oxidation. TC oil with lower iodine value might be better for biodiesel because there will not be excessive polymerization of glycerides which can results in deposit formation and deteriorates the fuel lubrication property. Iodine value also increase with degree of unsaturation and has positive linear relationship with carbon length. Therefore, each unsaturated compound contributed to the Iodine value, hence, lower iodine value was obtained for TC oil.

The cetane number gives indication of the ignition quality of oil like octane number in petrol or hydrocarbon. Thus, the oil with the highest cetane number has better fuel characteristics. Hence, TN oil will better for biodiesel since it has the highest cetane number, because the higher the cetane number, the shorter the ignition delay and the better the ignition quality [22]. Cetane number generally increase between 10 – 40 % after transesterification [28]. Although the cetane number of TN oil was greater compared to that of TC and HC oils, all oils have similar biofuel potential and higher heating value. Oils with large proportion of saturated fatty acids are known to have high cetane number. Cetane number of some pure fatty acid methyl esters are 69.9, 74.4, 76.30, 36.8, and 21.6 for myristic palmitic, stearic, linoleic, and linolenic, respectively [29]. Therefore, the higher the percentage of saturated fatty acid, the higher the cetane number. Total saturated fatty acid of TN oil, which was 34.18 % is higher than that of TC, which was 30.59 % and the SFA of HC oil was 26.59 %. High percentage of saturated fatty acid can make the cetane number of vegetable oil exceed cetane scale [30], which is what was observed in this study. Therefore, cetane number correlated well with amount of saturated fatty acid in the oil. Generally, the higher the degree of unsaturation the longer the ignition delay times, which normally results in poor combustion [22].

Higher heating value (HHV) is related to the energy content of oil that an engine will consume. It is the amount of the heating energy that is released by combustion of a unit volume of the oil. Some major factors that contribute to HHV are the oil moisture content, oil viscosity, chain length and degree of unsaturation [22]. The moisture contents of the oil were generally low, so will not have much effect on the HHV. Specific gravity of the three oil was found to be the same, so could be one of the reasons why the HHV was relatively the same. Also, the three oils have linoleic acid methyl ester which is the major fatty acid methyl ester that could decrease the HHV among the detected fatty acids. Thus, the degree of unsaturation in the three oils was the determining factor that affected the HHV.

The knowledge of total saturated fatty acid (TSA), monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA), and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) is essential to get the ratio of PUFA to TSA, since oil rich in unsaturation is more desirable for industrial application [7]. Table 4 showed that the ratio of PUFA to TSA varied with HC having the highest PUFA/TSA index and TC with the lowest PUFA/TSA index. Generally, oil rich in MUFA has been adjudged the best for biodiesel [6], therefore, TN and TC will be a better oil for biodiesel, since they both have higher amount of MUFA compared to HC. Nevertheless, HC will be good for other application were high amount of PUFA is desirable.

The total content of fatty acids in the seed oils were 67.16, 80.28, and 63.13 % for HC, TN, and TC. Therefore, the fatty acid contents in the oil are less compared to 95 - 97 % fatty acid content commonly report in literature [9,10], however greater than 22 % [31], and 48 % [25]. The low fatty acid contents in the selected seed oils might be related to the weather conditions in the locations where the samples were taken.

Soil and climatic conditions can affect the chemical compositions of seed [32]. Some of the observable difference in the chemical composition of the seed oils and those reported earlier in literature would be attributed to the climatic conditions and nature of soils from different areas. For example, nine fatty acids were observed in HC from this study, consistent with some earlier works [3,8], while only three fatty acids were reported by some other groups [14,25]. Linoleic acid is the dominant fatty acid found in the HC seed oil, which is consistent with literature [3,25]. However, the percentage weight of linoleic acid has been reported as 96.3 [25], and 81.31 [14], but only 49.20 was detected in HC oil from this study area, which is close to 52.8 reported by another group [8]. Interestingly, a lower percentage of fatty acid of 36.6 had been earlier reported [7]. Hence, fatty acid composition of seed oil varied with soil and climatic conditions. It is interesting that oleic acid was not detected in HC and other seed oil from this study, therefore this seed oil is practically different from palm oil, which is abundant in oleic acid. However, 27 % oleic acid has been reported from HC seed oil from another location [[7], [8]].

It is outstanding that the dominant fatty acid in TN seed oil was pentadecenoic acid because another report [19], did not detect any C15 carbon. Pentadecnoic acid has been reported to have inhibitory activity against IFN-γ-induced production of kynurenine in Thp-1 cells [33]. The percentage of palmitic acid was relative the same with 20 reported earlier [19], but oleic acid was not found in HC oil from this study area, which was the dominant fatty acid reported elsewhere [19]. Therefore, seed oil from different location needs to be evaluated for their potential for both human consumption and industrial applications, since fatty acid compositions varied with soil and climatic conditions.

Table 5 represents the antimicrobial activities against three (3) plant product oils against ten (13) pathogens among which are five (5) bacterial and five (5) fungal. The result revealed that HC and TN seed oil was not effective with tested organisms for bacteria (Klebsiella Pneumoniae (gram -ve), Staphylococcus aureus (gram +ve), E. coli (gram -ve), and for fungal (Candida albican, Rhizopus Stolonifer, Fusarium Solani, Aspergillus flavus, and Candida tropicalis). Nevertheless, TC was active against all tested pathogens except for Klebsiella pneumoniae (gram -ve). The activities of TC against fungus pathogens were different from that of bacteria, which might be related to the composition of their cell walls. Tetracycline was more active to bacteria compared to TC, but TC was more active to fungus than teracycline, however, nystatin performed better than TC for fungus. Tetracycline is antibiotic that fights infection caused by bacteria and nystatin is a positive control well known for its antifungal activities. Thus, TC has both antifungal and antibacterial activities since it showed a broad sprectrum of activity against gram-positive, gram negative and fungus. TC is abundant in cis-10-heptadecenoic acid, which is absent in HC and TN. Due to the abundance of cis-10-heptadecenoic acid in TC it is easy to conclude that cis-10-heptadecenoic acid is the active ingredient in TC, however, it is a general knowledge that optimal effectiveness of a medicinal plant may not be due to one main active constituents, but to the combined action of different compound present in the plant [23].Table 5 Antimicrobial activities of Hura Crepitans, Theivetia Nerifolia, Trichosanthes Cucumerina seed oils and reference substances against some selected organisms.

Table 5:Organisms	HC (mm)	TN (mm)	TC (mm)	Tetracycline (mm)	Nystatin (mm)	Distilled water (mm)	
Klebsiella pnuemoniae	0.00	0.00	0.00	20.00	–	0.00	
Staphylococcus aureus	0.00	0.00	13.00	38.00	–	0.00	
Escherichia coil	0.00	0.00	10.00	20.00	–	0.00	
Bacillus subtilis	–	–	12.00	21.00		0.00	
Enterobacter aerogenes	–	–	12.00	24.11		0.00	
Candida albican	0.00	0.00	14.00	11.12	20.00	0.00	
Rhyzopus stolonifera	0.00	0.00	21.00	7.25	24.00	0.00	
Fusarium solani	0.00	0.00	13.00	7.38	20.00	0.00	
Aspergillus flavus	0.00	0.00	21.00	11.12	23.00	0.00	
Candida tropicalis	–	–	14.00	–	28.00	0.00	

4 Conclusion

Physical and chemical properties of three common seed oil in Ondo State, Nigeria had shown vast different from that of other location in Nigeria and other part of the world. Hura crepitans, Thevetial nerifolia and Trichosanthes cucumerina are common seed oils of lesser usage. The yield of the oil varied among locations, and the yields obtained for the three seeds fell within acceptable yield for commercialization of seed oil. The three oils were rich in unsaturation with total unsaturation fatty acid of 73.41, 69.41 and 65.82 % for Hura crepitans, Trichosanthes cucumerina, and Thevetial nerifolia, however the mono-unsaturated fatty acid for Trichosanthes cucumerina, and Thevetial nerifolia, was about 37 %. Therefore, linoleic acid, a polyunsaturated fatty acid was the reason why Hura crepitans has the highest unsaturation. Thevetial nerifolia has the highest total fatty acid and therefore highest the highest cetane number and slightly higher biofuel potential and higher heat value. The oil can be annex for various applications. However, Hura crepitans, and Thevetial nerifolia oil did not possess antimicrobial activities against pathogens, while Trichosanthes cucumerina possess antimicrobial activities against pathogens which indicated that it can be used for antiseptics.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Esther Anuoluwapo Ominowa: Methodology, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization. Adebisi Olonisakin: Supervision, Conceptualization. Oluwabunmi Peace Femi-Oloye: Writing – review & editing. Charles Ayodeji Osunla: Writing – review & editing. Femi Francis Oloye: Writing – review & editing.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Appendix Supplementary materials

Image, application 1

Data availability

Data will be made available on request.

Supplementary material associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.btre.2024.e00858.
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