Total lipids were extracted form five varieties of Japonica- and Indica-types of brown rice. Their contents were 2.2-2.6% and those quantitative differences were scarcely found. Neutral lipids occupied about 85% of the total lipids, subsequently glycolipids 5 - 7 % and phospholipids 7 - 9 % of them, respectively. In the three lipid fractions, little quantitative differences were detected among the five rice varieties. The most abundant lipid class was triacylglycerol (TG) which composed more than half (55-58%) of the total lipids. The principal glyceroglycolipids were diglycosyldiacylglycerol (DGDG) and monoglycosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG), and the major glycerophospholipids were phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and phosphatidylinositol (PI) in decreasing order. Among the five rice varieties, a quantitative difference was hardly recognized in the six lipid classes. The prominent constituent fatty acids of these lipid classes were linoleic, oleic, palmitic and linolenic acids. The relative proportions of these four fatty acid contents differed among the five rice varieties and/or the six lipid classes. The principal molecular species of TG were palmitoyloleoyllinolein(16:0-18:1-18:2, 15-18%), oleoyldilinolein(18:1-18:2-18:2, 12-16%), dioleoyllinolein(18:1-18:1-18:2, 13-16%, including icosenyldilinolein, 20:1-18:2-18:2), and palmitoyldilinolein(16:0-18:2-18:2, 11-14%, including palmitoyloleoyllinolenin, 16:0-18:1-18:3). Higher unsaturated molecular species were much found in the rices cultivated in a cold district (Hokkaido, Japan), reversely, lower unsaturated ones were much detected in those grown in mild and in tropical regions.
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