The component glycerides of an Indian sheep body fat

Conclusions The component glycerides of an Indian sheep body fat have been investigated, employing the most recently developed experimental techniques, notably crystallization from solvents at low temperature. The chief components of the fatty acids were palmitic (27.8), stearic (27.7), and oleic (33.0), accompanied by small proportions or traces of myristic (2.9), arachidic (1.5), tetradecenoic (0.4), hexadecenoic (2.7), octadecadienoic (3.4), and unsaturated C 20–22 acids (0.6) (percentages by weight). The chief constituent glycerides of the fat may be summarized as follows: Fully saturated glycerides form 28% of the whole fat and consist largely of dipalmitostearins (16%) and palmitodisterins (11%); very small proportions of triplamitin and possibly tristearin may also be present. The monounsaturated glycerides (28.6%) consist largely of oleopalmito‐stearins; small proportions of oleodipalmitin and perhaps also of hexadeceno‐dipalmitins or‐palmitostearins are also probably present. Diunsaturated glycerides (40.5%) are the most prominent category of mixed glycerides in the sheep fat, with about 26% of palmitodiunsaturated and 14% of stearodiunsaturated glycerides. Probably nearly two‐thirds of these are respectively palmitodiolein and stearodiolein, but in the remainder one of the minor component unsaturated acids takes the place of one (or in rare instances both) of the oleo‐groups. Finally, there are present about 3% of triunsaturated glycerides , which are made up of two (or one) oleic groups in association with one (or two) acyl groups of one or the other of the minor component unsaturated acids. The Indian sheep body fat appears to differ some‐what from the English sheep body fats examined previously (4) in contaiming (in relation to its total saturated acid content) somewhat more trisaturated glycerides, definitely more of the diunsaturated glyceride group, and considerably less of the monounsaturated glyceride group.