A mixture of conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) was prepared by alkali conjugation of high purity linoleic acid. The preparation contained 45.1 wt% cis-9, trans-11 (c9,t 11)-CLA, 46.8 wt% trans-10, cis-12 (t 10,c12)-CLA, and 5.3 wt% other CLAs. A process comprising Candida rugosa lipase-catalyzed selective esteriˆcation with lauryl alcohol, molecular distillation, and urea adduct fractionation under strict conditions in ethanol was very eŠective for puriˆcation of c9,t 11-and t 10,c12-CLAs. In particular, the urea adduct fractionation e‹ciently eliminated CLAs except c9,t 11-and t 10,c12-isomers. Puriˆcation of c9,t 11-and t 10,c12-CLAs from 1.0 kg of the CLA mixture increased the c9,t 11-CLA purity to 93.1% with 34% recovery of the initial content, and increased the t 10,c12-CLA purity to 95.3% with 31% recovery.Key words: conjugated linoleic acid; Candida rugosa lipase; esteriˆcation; urea adduct fractionation; molecular distillation Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a group of C18 fatty acids (FAs) containing a pair of conjugated double bonds in either the cis or trans conˆguration. A commercialized product contains almost equal amounts of cis-9, trans-11 (c9,t 11)-CLA and trans-10, cis-12 (t 10,c12)-CLA. The mixture of CLA isomers has various physiological activities, such as reduction of the incidence of cancer, 1-3) decrease in body fat content, 4-6) beneˆcial eŠects on atherosclerosis, 7,8) and improvement of immune function.9) It was recently reported that c9,t 11-CLA had anticancer activity, 10) and that t 10,c12-CLA participated in the decrease of body fat and the increase of energy expenditure. [11][12][13][14] These studies called a great deal of attention to the fractionation of CLA isomers.Lipases from Geotrichum candidum and Candida rugosa were recently reported to recognize c9,t 11-CLA more readily than t 10,c12-CLA, and an enzymatic method with these lipases was eŠective for the separation of c9,t 11-and t 10,c12-CLAs. 15,16) In particular, we successfully puriˆed c9,t 11-and t 10,c12-CLAs to 95z based on the total content of the two isomers by a process composed of C. rugosa lipase-catalyzed selective esteriˆcation with lauryl alcohol (LauOH), molecular distillation, and urea adduct fractionation.16) However, the two puriˆed preparations, especially t 10,c12-CLA preparation, contained nearly 10z of CLAs other than c9,t 11-and t 10,c12-isomers.16) In addition, the two puriˆed preparations contained oleic acid. These contaminants are undesirable when studying physicochemical and physiological properties of the two CLAs. We thus attempted to purify the two CLAs without contamination by other isomers. This paper reports that high purity of the two CLAs can be obtained by improving our previous process as follows: a CLA mixture prepared by alkali conjugation of highly puriˆed linoleic acid is used as a starting material, and urea adduct fractionation is done under strict conditions with ethanol.We previously fractionated c9,t 11-and t 10,c12-CLAs from a commercially available CLA mixture. Because the ...