Abstract
The amounts and compositions of wax esters (WE) in various tissues of the forked hake Laemonema longipes were examined. Liver specimens containing copious amounts of lipids (72.9%) were composed almost entirely of WE (87.4%). Flesh and ovary samples contained small amounts of lipids (0.4% and 1.4%) with lower WE content (1.9 % and 13.1%, respectively). WE in the tissue lipids was found to consist mostly of C38, C36, C40, C34 and C42 components (85.0-90.9%) in the carbon chain lengths. Fatty alcohols originating in WE were essentially monoenoic (89.0-95.1%) with the predominant components being 22:1 (54.0-60.9%) and 20:1 (26.7-28.1%) alcohols. Each of the monoenoic fatty alcohols comprised their isomers, and the more abundant components were 22:1n-11 (49.1-54.8%) and 20:1n-11 (21.1-22.1%) alcohols. Component fatty acids in WE from liver lipids were more monoenoic (71.8%) with 18:1n-9 (20.4%), 22:1n-11 (13.4%) and 16:1n-7 (11.8%) acids. Highly purified WE was separated from liver lipids adsorbed on silicic acid or activated aluminum oxide with n-hexane.
