Abstract
We isolated and characterized wax esters from some species of myctophid fish, which are rich in wax esters, i.e., Stenobrachius leucopsarus, Stenobrachius nannochir and Lampanyctus regalis, through TLC, HPLC, GC and mass spectrometry. Wax esters with carbon chain lengths ranging from 30 to 44 were the major constituents among the above three species, always accounting for more than 90% of the total wax esters. The predominant molecules in the wax esters were 34:1 (16:0-18:1, alkoxyacyl) in S. leucopsarus, 34:1 (16:0-18:1), 40:2 (22:1-18:1) and 38:2 (20:1-18:1) in S. nannochir, and 40:2 (22:1-18:1), 42:2 (22:1-20:1, 20:1-22:1) in L. regalis, respectively. The molecular patterns in the above species coincided well with the random prediction.
