TRIGLYCERIDES WITH POLYUNSATURATED FATTY-ACIDS IN HUMAN-MILK AND IN INGREDIENTS FOR INFANT FORMULAS

Among the polyunsaturated fatty acids of human milk, arachidonic (AA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are of particular physiological importance. For this reason, the triglycerides (TG) containing polyunsaturated fatty acids were isolated by argentation HPLC and were partially fractionated further by HPLC on a RP-18 column. The position analysis of the TG obtained using partial hydrolysis with Grignard reagent indicates that AA and DHA are rather evenly distributed over the marginal and central TG positions. As a consequence, the positional distribution of these fatty acids can be neglected for supplementing polyunsaturated fatty acids in infant formulas. Several fish oils with high DHA but low eicosapentaenoic acid contents and some single cell oils containing DHA and AA in high concentrations were analysed as well and proved to be very suitable for supplementation purposes.