Very long chain fatty acid methyl esters in transesterified palm oil

Some unidentified minor compounds have been observed in the residue from short-path distillation of transesterified palm oil that are not detected in the original palm oil. A method combining short-path distillation to enrich the unknowns with fractionation using solid-phase extraction is described. The fractionated components were identified using GC coupled with MS. The transesterified palm oil was found to contain methyl esters of up to C₃₂ carbon atoms. In the very long chain FAME with carbon numbers ≥20, both even and odd carbon numbers accounted for 0.26 wt%, with C₂₄ and C₂₆ being the major ones present in the residue after short-path distillation of transesterified palm oil.