fatty acid profile of roots and aerial parts of ruscus hyrcanus woronow

Background: ruscus specie are used as traditional medicine, food, and foliage. the aim of this work is the determination of fatty acid composition of ruscus hyrcanus as a native medicinal plant of iran for the first time together with comparison of different esterification methods. methods: two different esterification methods were used for preparation of esterified fatty acids from different extracts of underground and aerial parts of the herb. gc/ms analysis were used for identification and quantification of fatty acids. finally, the results were compared. results: findings showed that r. hyrcanus is rich in essential fatty acids such as linoleic acid (13-25%) and linolenic acid (23-44%). also, oil samples contain remarkable amount of palmitic acid (19-57%). conclusion: the results showed that r. hyrcanus could be considered as a source of essential fatty acids. also, it could be concluded that a simple esterification method with methanolic koh and 2 min vortex is suitable for fatty acid analysis of ruscus species.