[en] The wheat germ oil may constitute an alternative to the misuse of this cereal grain resource. His
Tunisian exploitation is limited, at present, in the human and animal feed in the grain form, straw or some
transformed products. For the purpose of characterization, the wheat germ oil has been extracted by Soxhlet
apparatus from a Tunisian variety of durum wheat (Maali) based on the hexane as a solvent. An analysis by
gas chromatography (GC) was then performed to identify and quantify the fatty acids of the oil. Then, the oil
has submitted to a second chromatography analysis in liquid phase (HPLC) to quantify the tocopherols. The
most important fatty acids constituting have been the two polyunsaturated acids linoleic acid C18:2 (OMEGA
6) and the gamma acid- linoleic C18:3 : 58.24 % and 4.19 % respectively; and the acid mono-unsaturated
oleic acid C18:1 ( 24.49 %) but also some saturated acid: palmitic acid C16:0 with ( 19.50 % ), and the stearic
acid C18:0 (1.29%). For this variety of Tunisian durum wheat, the wheat germ oil contains, in addition, 80.27
mg / 100g of α- tocopherols (vitamin E). The wheat germ oil extracted from the Tunisian variety 'Maali' has
proved rich in vitamin E and omega-6 ; a better valorisation on the nutritional or pharmaceutical plan is to this
title recommended.
