Microwave‐Assisted, Base‐Catalyzed Synthesis of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters from Seeds and Fish Oil Supplements

Abstract

Growing health awareness has resulted in the increased use of dietary supplements derived from plants and marine sources, leaving consumers unsure of their best options. There were three objectives of the present study. The first was to design and evaluate an efficient derivatization procedure. The second was to perform a comparative analysis of liquid oils and their corresponding capsules of hemp, chia, and flax seeds. The final objective was to determine the fatty acid (FA) composition of six fish oil products and compare it to the one provided on the label. For the FA profiling, we implemented two efficient, one‐step, sustainable methods with high percentage recovery for the synthesis of FA methyl esters (FAME), which use base catalysis and microwave‐assisted heating. Our results found no difference in nutritional value between liquid oils and capsules of the seed supplements, with flaxseed and chia offering a higher, beneficial n‐3:n‐6 ratio compared to hemp oil. Four of the fish oils analyzed contained significantly less eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) than their reported label, and the other two not only agreed with the manufacturers' declaration but were able to fulfill the daily adequate intake (AI) with fewer capsules.

Chia seeds oil ameliorate chronic immobilization stress-induced neurodisturbance in rat brains via activation of the antioxidant/anti-inflammatory/antiapoptotic signaling pathways

“…CSO (1000 mg/ capsule) was purchased as organic, unrefined, cold-pressed oil capsules (DEVA Nutrition LLC, USA, catalog number 63000), and the chemical composition of the investigated product was mentioned by the manufacturer 32 and reported by Segura-Campos et al 33 , Malko and Larraza 34 . Rat's serum corticosterone ELISA kit was purchased from ALPCO Co. (Keewaydin Drive, Salem, USA), serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin 6 (IL6) were purchased from Abcam (Cambridge, United Kingdom), and superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and malondialdehyde (MDA) were obtained from Biodiagnostic Co. (Cairo, Egypt).…”

Microwave-Assisted Transesterification of Cooking Oils and GC–MS Determination of Their Fatty Acid Constituents: A Research-Based Integrated Lab Experiment

“…A conventional method to prepare FAME which does not use a microwave reactor is described in the Supporting Information (S10).…”