Recent advances in the analytical chemistry of fatty acids and derivatives

Abstract

Recent advances in the analysis of industrial fatty acids and their derivatives almost always involve complex instrumentation. One of the most important developments in the analysis of fatty acids and their derivatives was the application of gas chromatography (GC). The result has been so effective that the time‐consuming fractional distillation and detailed analysis of fractions previously employed are rarely used. Even though the so‐called GLC technique has now been applied for over twenty years, new advances continue to be made in this area. Perhaps the most potentially valuable new development is the coupling of GLC with mass spectrometry (GLC‐MS). Two newer chromatographic methods which have great potential in the field of fatty material analysis are thin layer chromatography (TLC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The former is applicable to difficult separations; e.g., separation of broad lipid classes, in microquantities. The latter has already been applied with some success to the separation of individual component triglycerides of fats and oils and fatty acids using reverse phase HPLC. Instrumentation techniques include supportive methods which are frequently used in conjunction with other methods. Among these, the techniques of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and infrared absorption (IR) are the most prominent.13C NMR is useful in defining fine structure of fatty acids, particularly with respect to branching. X‐ray diffraction is used to study polymorphism in fatty acids.