Triglyceride composition of native and rearranged butter and coconut oils

Abstract

Abstract Triglyceride gas chromatography was used for quantitative fractionation by carbon number of native and rearranged butter and coconut oils. Significant differences in the triglyceride type distributions between the corresponding native and chemically modified fats were found. Increased proportions of both short and long chain triglycerides occurred in the rearranged butterfat. In reconstituted coconut oil there was a shift towards the shorter chain length triglycerides. The natural and the rearranged triglyceride distributions of the two oils were shown to differ from the random distributions calculated for the corresponding fatty acid complements. The butterfat triglyceride compositions showed greater deviations from random than did the coconut oils. The modified oils approached random distributions more closely than did the native ones. In both cases the deviations from truly random populations appeared to be in the direction anticipated on the basis of chemical reactivity.