A contribution to the discussion of the glyceride structure of stearic-rich animal depot fats

Summary

Comparative study of the constituent glycerides of a number of ox, sheep, and pig body fats which have been investigated in the Liverpool laboratories reveals that, while there is considerable accordance between the values observed for the trisaturated and monounsaturated groups of glycerides with those calculated from probability considerations, there is complete divergence between the latter and the values observed for the di- and triunsaturated glycerides.

The views on animal body fat glyceride structure developed and maintained by Hilditch and co-workers are shown to be in harmony with the arithmetical relationships referred to (Table I), while they do not require the postulate that enzyme synthesis of glycerides should differ fundamentally in animal and in vegetable cells.

It is shown that apparent resemblance in the proportions of the four categories of saturated and unsaturated glycerides to those calculated on probability considerations may arise in a number of different ways, and that such resemblance has not necessarily any bearing on the mode of glyceride structure observed in fats.

The well-established fact that mixed glycerides produced at high temperatures by synthesis or by acyl interchange approximate to “random” (probability) distribution also has no bearing upon the matter of the structure of mixed glycerides produced by the synthetic action of enzymes at or near atmospheric temperatures in the living cell.