ABSTRACT
Prunus armeniaca L. (Rosaceae), known as apricot, is one of the major export products of Turkey and its seed oil has become quite popular in cosmetics industry. On this purpose, fatty acid analysis of the seed oils of three apricot cultivars (Prunus armeniaca L.) from different localities in Turkey (Kalecik, Bodrum, and Malatya) was carried out by both gas chromotography (GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The results showed that various differences were observed among the fatty acid contents of these three apricot seed oils. According to our data, it was found that the Malatya sample had the richest in linolenic acid content (10.87%) and the Bodrum sample had the highest in linoleic acid (34.77%). On the other hand, Kalecik-originated one was found to contain the lowest palmitic acid amount among all samples studied.