Technology for the identification of unusual cis, cis octadecadienoic fatty acids

In this article methods are presented for the separation and identification of unusual cis, cis dienoic and polygnoic long chain fatty acids. Special emphasis has been laid on the identification of cis, cis octadecadienoic acids. The steps followed are: after transesterification the fatty acid methyl esters are separated by preparative gas chromatography according to chain length followed by argentation chromatography on thin-layer plates. After hydroxylation of the double bonds with osmium tetroxide the polyhydroxy compounds are derivatized to the per-O-trimethylsilyl-ethers. Separation and identification of individual compounds are achieved by combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry using SCOT columns and low ionization energy.