Minor component fatty acids of common vegetable oils

A combination of gas‐liquid chromatography (GLC) and oxidative cleavage on fractions isolated by mercury derivative chromatography has shown the presence of previously unreported minor component fatty acids in olive, soybean, cottonseed, corn, peanut, rapeseed and safflower oil. All of the oils examined contain small amt of saturated acids above arachidic, some as high as hexacosanoic acid. Cis ‐11‐octadecenoic acid was found in amt ranging from 0.5~2.0%. Cis ‐11‐eicosenoic acid is present in the 0.04~1.4% range (rapeseed oil excluded). The tetracosenoic acid present in rapeseed (0.4%) and safflower oil (0.1%) has been identified as the cis ‐15‐tetracosenoic acid. No unusual polyenoic species were detected with the exception of those in rapeseed oil, which contains 0.6% of both 11,14‐eicosadienoic and 13,16‐docosadienoic acid.