Antioxidative Activity of Egg Yolk Phospholipids

Abstract

The antioxidative activities of 0.1% additional egg yolk lipid (EYL) fractions (egg yolk neutral lipids, EYL-N; egg yolk lipids containing 31.3% phospholipids, EYL-30; egg yolk lipids containing 68.0% phospholipids, EYL-65; and egg yolk lipids containing 96.8% phospholipids, EYL-95) in rich docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) oil were investigated. The antioxidative activity of EYL was in the order EYL-95 > EYL-65 > EYL-30 ≫ EYL-N and proportional to phospholipid concentration. The antioxidative capability of purified egg yolk phospholipids (egg yolk phosphatidylcholine, EY-PC; egg yolk phosphatidylethanolamine, EY-PE; hydrogenated fatty acid chain-containing phosphatidylcholine, HFA-PC; and hydrogenated fatty acid chain-containing phosphatidylethanolamine, HFA-PE) in rich DHA oil was also examined. The result indicated that the antioxidative activity of phospholipids was in the order EY-PE > EY-PC ≫ HFA-PE > HFA-PC and decreased with an increase in the degree of saturation of fatty acid chains within the phospholipids. The antioxidative effect of EYL-30 in squalene was also examined, and the result indicated that the effect of the antioxidant is the concentration dependent. Keywords: Phospholipid; lecithin; antioxidant; DHA oil; squalene