Abstract
The seed oil oo Aleurites cordata (tung oil), which contains eleostearic acid (9, 11, C18: 3) at each position of α, β, and a' position of grycerol by 76 %, can work as a substrate of lipases. As the fatty acid possess specific absorbance at 275 nm, the lipase activity can be evaluated by measuring the the optical density of the phase containing fatty acids liberated by the enzyme reaction, after the partition by organic solvents. By application of this procedure, screening test of serum lipase activity, with less than 25μl of serum, can be done for a minor improvemnt; the assay can be made by adding sodium dodecyl sulfate and sodium taurodeoxycholate to the reaction mixture. The procedure and the "BALB method" which is widely employed in clinical screening test of serum lipase were apploximately equal in sensitivity. As a natural oil is used as a substrate in this procedure, it can be excluded the errors which may occur in the BALB method by the contamination of other esterases. It also be possible by the procedure to measure the lipase activities in chylemia and in the high activity region of serum, of wich activities are difficult to measure by the BALB method.
