Quality characteristics and digestive behavior of seed oils from two Huajiao (Zanthoxylum bungeanum and Zanthoxylum...

Huajiao seeds represent an underutilized high-quality woody oilseed resource rich in unsaturated fatty acids and diverse nutritional factors. This study investigated the quality characteristics and digestive behavior of two Huajiao seed oils (Zanthoxylum bungeanum seed oil (ZBSO) and Zanthoxylum schinifolium seed oil (ZSSO)). The results demonstrated that both oils were rich in unsaturated fatty acids, with ZBSO containing 76.34 % eighteen‑carbon (C18) unsaturated fatty acids, while ZSSO is characterized by a high content of the relatively rare palmitoleic acid (40.78 %). ZBSO has 26 triacylglycerols (TAGs), including O-L-L, O-L-Ln, and P-O-L, while ZSSO has 22, such as Po-Po-O, Po-Po-Po, and P-Po-Po. The volatile aromatic of ZSSO (770.65 μg/g) is more complex than that of ZBSO (244.25 μg/g). The predominant metallic elements in ZBSO are Ca (38.28 μg/g) and ZSSO are Fe (66.06 μg/g). Both ZBSO and ZSSO demonstrated remarkable antioxidant activities. In vitro digestion experiments showed that the maximum release of free fatty acids of ZBSO (70.75 %) was higher than that of ZSSO (67.99 %), but the release rate was lower than that of ZSSO. The findings provide new insights into the utilization of these two novel woody oils.