Preparation of fatty acid methyl esters for gas-chromatographic analysis of lipids in biological materials

Theoretically, preparation of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) deals with reversible chemical reactions in a complex system. Methodologically, there are a number of approaches, generally characterized by the type of catalysts used and steps involved. A novel approach has been to transmethylate lipids in situ. The method of straightforward transmethylation is finding a niche in lipid determination because of its simplicity, high sensitivity and reliability. However, regardless of method used, quantitative methylation requires precaution at every step involved, especially during FAME formation and subsequent recovery steps.