Determination of the glyceride structure of fats

A method has been described for the quantitative determination of the following six glyceride types in fats: SSS, SSU, SUS, SUU, USU, and UUU. The method involved a quantitative oxidation of the unsaturated acids in the whole fat to the corresponding dicarboxylic acids. The oxidized fat was separated on a liquid-liquid partition column into two fractions, the first containing glycerides having no dicarboxylic acid or one dicarboxylic acid and the second containing glycerides with two or three dicarboxylic acids. Analysis of these fractions by gas chromatography coupled with lipase hydrolysis allowed the calculation of the proportions of the above six glyceride types. The oxidation, fractionation, lipase hydrolysis, gas chromatographic analysis, and the over-all method were checked on natural fats and mixtures of synthetic glycerides. The final glyceride composition appeared to be reliable to within plus or minus 2 unit per cent. Analyses are given for five natural fats. The compositions found agree very well with those calculated by a distribution theory recently proposed by Vander Wal. Contribution from the National Research Council of Canada, Prairie Regional laboratory, Saskatoon, Saskatchwan. Issued as N.R.C. No. 6161.