Stereospecific distribution of structured lipids obtained from palm oil, palm kernel oil, and medium chain triacylglycerols

Abstract

Structured lipids were synthesized by chemical interesterification from palm oil, palm kernel oil, and medium chain triacylglycerols. The objective of this study was to verify the fatty acids positional distribution in the structured lipids. It was possible to confirm the interesterification occurrence through enzymatic hydrolysis, which allowed to know the fatty acids composition in specific positions of the triacylglycerols. Ten samples composed by three individual samples, three binary mixtures and four ternary mixtures were studied. The samples were hydrolyzed with swine pancreatic lipase at 40ºC and then analyzed for the fatty acid composition by gas chromatography. From the experimental results, the groups of triacylglycerols in the individual samples and in the mixtures, obtained before and after the interesterification reaction, were calculated. The 1,3random, 2-random and the 1,2,3-random theories were utilized. The results showed that before the random rearrangement, oleic acid was mainly esterified to the sn2 position, whereas palmitic and stearic acids were mainly distributed at the sn-1 and sn-3 positions. The saturated fatty acids in the structured lipids increased their participation in the triacylglycerol central position, whereas the unsaturated fatty acids were decreased at the same position.