[Analysis of constituents in urushi wax, a natural food additive]

Urushi wax is a natural gum base used as a food additive. In order to evaluate the quality of urushi wax as a food additive and to obtain information useful for setting official standards, we investigated the constituents and their concentrations in urushi wax, using the same sample as scheduled for toxicity testing. After methanolysis of urushi wax, the composition of fatty acids was analyzed by GC/MS. The results indicated that the main fatty acids were palmitic acid, oleic acid and stearic acid. LC/MS analysis of urushi wax provided molecular-related ions of the main constituents. The main constituents were identified as triglycerides, namely glyceryl tripalmitate (30.7%), glyceryl dipalmitate monooleate (21.2%), glyceryl dioleate monopalmitate (2.1%), glyceryl monooleate monopalmitate monostearate (2.6%), glyceryl dipalmitate monostearate (5.6%), glyceryl distearate monopalmitate (1.4%). Glyceryl dipalmitate monooleate isomers differing in the binding sites of each constituent fatty acid could be separately determined by LC/MS/MS.