A further study of the component acids of ox depot fat, with special reference to certain minor constituents

Abstract

THE investigation in several laboratories of a variety of animal depot fats has revealed certain marked characteristics with respect to the amount of major component acids and their distribution among the complex mixture of glycerides. There is accumulating evidence of the extreme differences between marine or aquatic and land animal depot fats. The former are constructed from a much more complex mixture of fatty acids, largely unsaturated; the latter contain chiefly C16 and C18 acids with varying but larger amounts of saturated acids (30-60 %). Hilditch & Lovern [1936] have called attention to these differences and have indicated the gradual change in the fat depot composition of animals at various stages of evolutionary development. They show a gradual disappear- ance of polyethenoid C18, C20 and C2224 acids and the C14 and C16 monoethenoid acids (myristoleic and palmitoleic acids). In the present communication the occurrence in beef tallows of small amounts of tetradecenoic and hexadecenoic acids is demonstrated, in addition to the presence of a C20 unsaturated acid [cf. Brown & Sheldon, 1934]. These findings are related to the observations of Hilditch & Lovern.