Abstract: To explore the nutritional quality and safety of sacha inchi seeds and oil, the major micronutrients, phthalates and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in both samples were analyzed, and physicochemical properties and fatty acid composition of the oil were determined. The results showed that the contents of plasticizers and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in sacha inchi seeds from 8 different geographical areas were 0.543–1.695 mg/kg and 111.65–282.21 μg/kg, respectively; the contents of crude fat in sacha inchi seeds from Puwen town and Lvchun county, Yunnan province were 44.70% and 48.00%, and the contents of crude protein were 31.50% and 29.46%, respectively. The concentrations of phytosterol and vitamin E in sacha inchi oil were in the range of 190.16–225.51 and 177.99–208.14 mg/100 g, and the concentrations of plasticizers and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were 0.94–130.97 mg/kg and 207.92–1 139.47 μg/kg, respectively. Results of the physicochemical properties showed that acid value, peroxide value, iodine value, saponification value and phospholipids were 0.45–2.70 mg KOH/100 g, 0.57–3.05 mmol/kg, 189.98–193.39 g/100 g, 189.71–195.10 mg KOH/g and 0.00%–0.10%, respectively. Six major fatty acids were detected in sacha inchi oil, with linolenic acid being the most abundant one (44.28%–46.45%) followed by linoleic acid (37.88%–40.19%), and unsaturated fatty acids accounted for more than 92% of the total fatty acids. Overall, sacha inchi oil had a high nutritional value and good quality, but a wide difference in the contents of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and plasticizers was observed among different production batches; furthermore, plasticizer contents of only a few oil samples plasticizers greatly exceeded the national standard limit. Therefore, it is necessary for vegetable oil factories to monitor plasticizers in different production batches.

Key words: sacha inchi, sacha inchi oil, micronutrient, phthalate acid esters, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, fatty acid composition