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Abstract
Pecans are known for their healthful lipid profile, which includes the lipid micronutrients: tocopherols and phytosterols. Because the pecan has thousands of cultivars and is alternate bearing, these nutrient contents can vary. Despite this, these micronutrients are largely underreported in the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference (Release 27). Therefore, 20 different commercially-viable pecan cultivars were assayed to determine tocopherol and phytosterol contents along with effects of crop year and cultivar on these bioactives. Chromatographic methods were employed to determine the levels of tocopherols and phytosterols. All of the tocopherol and most of the phytosterol values determined were lower than that of the Database, due to the sample variability included in this study. Overall it was discovered that cultivar and crop year can significantly affect the nutrient level of pecans, and thus should be incorporated into the USDA Database