Enzymatic hydrolysis of the fish oil

The fish oil has been the purpose of many researches due to the nutritional benefits of its polyunsatured fatty acids and it is confirmed by epidemic studies that relate the low incidence of cardiovascular diseases to the consumption of n-3 fatty acids (EPA - eicosapentaenoico, DHA - docosahexaenoico) deriving from the sea fish. N-3 polyunsatured fatty acids can be obtained from the fish by enzymatic hydrolysis. The enzymatic hydrolysis of fats and oils, or lipolysis, is known to produce fatty acids to alter the fats by esterification, transesterification and interesterification. The main objective of this work was to obtain poliinsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) by enzymatic hydrolysis of the industrial fish oil. It was used 1262,81 mu mols of substrate, porcine lipase (7,647 mg.mL(-1) of enzymatic extract), 60-minute of hydrolysis, 38 degrees C. pH 8 and NH4Cl-NH4OH buffer. The hydrolysis products were separated by column chromatography and characterized by TLC GLC. The specific activity of lipase was 10.14 +/- 0.15 UE.mg proteins(-1). After 60-minute of reaction was obtained 44,45% of hydrolysis and 1865,76 +/- 41.15 mu mols of fatty acids. Were identified PUFA, monoacylglycerol. diacylglycerol and triacylglycerol. There was an increase of 46,14 and 40,23%, respectively, of araquidonico and eicosapentaenoic (EPA) acids in the triacylglycerols fraction while the monoacylglycerol fraction showed an increase of 96.96 and 52.55% of DPA and DHA.