Chromatographic analysis of the neutral and phosphatide glyceryl ethers from various biological sources

A method of analysis is described which permits the facile evaluation of the neutral glyceryl ether lipids (mild alkaline hydrolysis) and total glyceryl ether lipid (Vitride reduction) thereby allowing an assessment of the phosphatide contribution. The alkyl and alk-enyl glyceryl ethers are chromatographically resolvable on Gelman glass-fiber type SG and Whatman SG-81 and detected by the periodic acid-Schiff and plasmal reaction, respectively. The attending problems and interpretation are discussed with examples from a number of unicellular organisms and animal tissues.