Relationship between fatty acid composition and triglyceride structure of bovine milk fat

Fourteen samples of milk fat, representing a wide range of individual fatty acid contents, were subjected to stereospecific analysis to determine fatty acid contents at the sn-1-, sn-2- and sn-3-positions of the triglycerides. Highly significant linear relationships were found between the content of a fatty acid at the 3 positions and the content of the same acid in the intact triglycerides. As the content of an acid increased in the triglycerides there were increases in the content of that acid at the 3 positions. When the content of an acid changed in the triglycerides, the content at the 3 stereospecific positions did not change at the same rate. The positions with the highest slope values corresponded to the positions where the individual fatty acids were preferentially esterified.