[Simple analysis of fatty acid in human milk by HPLC]

The conventional analysis of fatty acid requires such complicated operations as extraction of total lipid, evaporation of organic layer, alkaline hydrolysis, washing with n-hexane, re-extraction of fatty acid and washing with water, and therefore, is time-consuming. Herein, we report a simplified method dispensing with the steps of the extraction of total lipids, the evaporation of organic layer and the washing with n-hexane after hydrolysis. This method showed satisfactory results on the linearity of standard curves and their productibility, and a correlation was obtained between those obtained by the traditional method and by our simple method in human milk. We employed this method for the analysis of human milk secreted between the 3rd day and the 42nd day after delivery. The concentration of total fatty acid in human milk secreted after lactation showed a higher value than that before it, while the constituent ratio of fatty acid did not show such a great difference.