Stereospecific analysis of triglycerides

Abstract

Stereospecific analysis determines how the fatty acids of triglycerides are distributed over the three different positions of the glycerol. The special problem is the differentiation of position I‐1 and L‐3 of glycerol. In the presently known methods, triglycerides are first degraded to mixtures of diglycerides, either by the action of a lipase or by degradation with a Grignard reagent. The isomeric diglycerides are then resolved with the help of a stereospecific enzyme, either a diglyceride kinase or (after conversion of the diglycerides to phospholipids) a phospholipase. It is then possible to analyze or calculate the fatty acid composition for each position on the glycerol. The key to a successful stereospecific analysis is the preparation of a representative diglyceride mixture by a truly random degradation of the triglyceride. The Grignard degradation is the most reliable method, but it is not always applicable, and it is accompanied by some isomerization of glycerides. There is room for improvement in the method. Analyse of natural fats have shown most of them to be asymmetric, i.e., the composition of fatty acids in position 1 differs markedly from that of position 3. Several rules of fatty acid distribution have become apparent.