Abstract
The fatty acid compositions of lipids and the stereospecific distribution of fatty acids in triacylglycerols were determined on the lipids extracted from marketed sheep bones (humerus, femur, scapula and rib) and on the fractionated bone marrow lipids.
Sheep bone marrow lipids were largely composed of neutral lipids, and the predominant fatty acids of lipids were C16: 0, C18: 0 and C18: 1 acids. The phospholipid fractions contained less C16: 0 and C18: 1 acids, and more polyunsaturated fatty acids than the neutral lipid fractions of bone marrow lipids.
Of the saturated fatty acids, C16: 0 predominated in 1 position, and C18: 0 was abundant in 1 and 3 positions ; on the contrary, C18: 1 and C18: 2 acids were more at 2 position than 1 and 3 positions.
Generally, the fatty acid compostion and triacylglycerol structure of lipid was similar in all four bone marrow samples tested and resembled that of ovine or bovine muscle ipids.
Sheep bone marrow lipid was fractionated by acetone crystallization procedure to yield four fractions of which three were solid and one was liquid fractions. The separated fraction 1, 2, 3 and 4 were composed of 87, 72, 53 and 32% of saturated fatty acids, respectively.
Stereospecific analyses of these fractions revealed that C18: 0 was contained more in 1 and 3 positions than 2 position ; on the contrary, that C18: 1 and C18: 2 were contained more at 2 position than 1 and 3 positions. Although, in case of the fractions with high melting points (fraction 1 and 2) considerable amounts of C16: 0 and C18: 0 were esterified at 2 positions, contents of those acids at 2 position of fraction 3 and 4 were rather small.
