The depot fat of the emu, ratite native to Australia, has recently been found to be a source for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. In this study, the chemical characteristics of the depot fat from the emu have been clarified and compared with those from the ostrich and rhea, other ratites. The fatty acid combination in triacylglycerol (TG) molecular species detected were dioleoyllinolein, palmitoyloleoyllinolein, palmitoyldiolein and dipalmitoylolein, which were common to all major species of ratite. In the emu, TG containing oleic acid accounted for 89% of the total and palmitoyldiolein (20.5%) and the amount of triolein (16.6%) was the highest in the three species. In the ostrich, TG containing linolenic acid accounted for 23% of the total and the amount of palmitoyloleoyllinolenin (7.4%) was the highest in the three species. In the rhea, TG containing linoleic acid accounted for 55% of the total and the amount of palmitoyloleoyllinolein (16.1%) was the highest in the three species.

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Fatty monoethanolamides were synthesized in organic solvent from palm kernel olein (PKL) and palm kernel stearin (PKS) using a lipase from Candida rugosa. The transamidation reactions of PKL and PKS were enhanced in the presence of lipase. The optimal yield was achieved at reaction time 72 hours for both systems with PKL and PKS as the substrates. For PKL as the substrates, the optimal reaction temperature was 40°C, whereas with PKS as the substrate, no optimum temperature was found (in the range of temperature studied) where the relative yield increased with the increasing temperature. Lipase functioned better in hydrophobic solvents compared to hydrophilic solvents. The best solvent for the reactions was isooctane. Increasing the amount of the monoethanolamine used resulted in the increasing solubility of the reactants and products, hence, increasing the yield of the product. For PKL, increasing the mole ratio of PKL:monoethanolamine from 1:1 to 1:15 increased the relative yield to 4.5 fold. However, for PKS, the increase was only 2.5 fold. The optimal ratio of enzyme/PKL (or PKS) was 0.035. In the water activity studies, the preequilibrium and the direct salt hydrate addition methods were used. Generally, PKL always showed the higher relative yield compared to PKS. At the optimum condition at room temperature, the yield of PKL monoethanolamide was 77.0% and the yield of PKS monoethanolamide was 39.0%. Kinetic studies also showed a clear preference to PKL in which its K_m value was 10-fold lower than that of PKS at room temperature.

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Measurement of the amount of calcium present in cotton fabrics, evaluation of the individual calcium contents in the actual washing liquors for the several washing conditions and several detergency tests were conducted, to clarify how calcium existing not only in water used for washing but also in cotton fabrics to be washed does affect on detergency. Calcium content in cotton fabrics was found to range from 80 to 600μg/g·fabrics. When the water hardness is low, the ratio of the calcium content in the fabrics to the total calcium content is high, so that the extent of influence caused by calcium present in the fabrics on detergency is relatively high. The detergency tests made clear that the calcium content in cotton fabrics has no influence on detergency at the higher water hardness, but it does have a negative influence at the lower water hardness.

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Adipose mass and distribution are related to the incidence of metabolic and circulatory disorders. To assess regional differences in accumulation of dietary nutrients in mesenteric and non-mesenteric adipose tissues, radioactivity in total lipid in adipose tissues was measured for 4hr after oral administration of [¹⁴C]-triolein and d-[2-³H]-glucose to young rats. 4 hr after the labeled nutrients instillation, the amount of ¹⁴C derived from triolein was significantly more than that in non-mesenteric depot. Despite differences in the digestion process and delivery route to the general circulation, incorporation of ³H derived from glucose was also more in mesenteric than in other adipose tissue. Due to its unique anatomical location and characteristic endocrine function, preferential accumulation of dietary nutrients in mesenteric adipose tissue may have relevance to the pathology of abdominal obesity and its complications but the physiological and cellular basis for the regional differences in fat accumulation remains to be clarified.

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To assess the effect of the molecular form on absorption, transport and distribution to organs, mice were fed 4 molecular forms of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), such as DHA-triglyceride, DHA-phospholipid, DHA-ethylester, and DHA-free fatty acid orally for four weeks. Serum, liver, and brain lipids were analyzed. The fatty acid compositions of the serum and liver reflected the diet fatty acid compositions. After one-week feeding, the fatty acid composition had changed drastically. The DHA-phospholipid diet produced less arachidonic acid (AA) concentration in the serum and liver compared to the other three DHA diets. DHA-phospholipid was effective in the expulsion of AA from the serum and liver. The fatty acid composition of the brain did not change drastically. The control diet containing corn oil and safflower oil did not decrease the DHA concentration. The DHA concentration kept constant even with a non-DHA diet feed. All DHA diets resulted in increase in DHA concentration while the AA concentration decreased, significantly.

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Kinetic resolution of (R )- and (S )-2-alkanols by Pseudomonas cepacia lipase catalyzed transesterification has been studied using vinyl acetate as an acetylating reagent, six 2-alkanols and three organic solvents. The optical resolution of (S )-2-alkanol with enantiomeric excess (ee ) >95% was attained by controlling the extent of conversion, but (R )-2-alkanol with ee>95% could not resolved from the racemate due to the moderate enantioselectivity. New equations as functions of the optical resolution data were introduced for predicting the ee values of enantiomers resolved by the transesterification with enantiomerically enriched 2-alkanol and they were experimentally verified: the predicted and experimentally obtained ee values showed an excellent agreement in all systems studied. Based on these observations, optically pure (R )- and (S )-2-alkanols (ee≥99%) were resolved from the racemates in a preparative scale by repeating the transesterification.

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The effect of docosahexaenoic acid-rich eggs on human serum lipids was investigated in 27 healthy volunteers (11 males and 16 females, average age: 44.7 years old) under the condition of a randomized double-blind controlled study. The subjects were randomly divided into two groups, and the test group was given daily two eggs enriched with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) for 12-week period. Subjects in the control group were given daily two eggs obtained from hens fed a normal diet. The amounts of DHA in the foods were 8.31 ± 0.98 mg/g yolk in the DHA-rich eggs and 1.30 ±0.24 mg/g yolk in the control eggs, respectively. The levels of total cholesterol (TC) in the two groups were not significantly different from the initial values, except at 2 weeks in the control (p < 0.05), during the test period (12 weeks). The level of LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) in the test group fed DHA-rich eggs was slightly increased at 2 weeks (p < 0.05), but reduced to the initial values at 4 weeks and thereafter (not significantly different). The level of HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) in the test food group was significantly higher than that in the control in the subjects with TC ≤ 220 mg/dl at 8 weeks (p < 0.05). The DHA concentration of serum total lipid in the test group had increased significantly at 4 weeks (p < 0.05), but in comparison, it had decreased in the control (not significantly different). In conclusion, the dietary effect of DHA-rich eggs on human serum lipids is limited, but the intake of DHA-rich eggs maintains higher levels of HDL-C and DHA in the subjects compared to those in the control subjects fed normal eggs during the 12-week test period.

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