Summary Phytanic acid, 3,7,11,15-tetramethylhexadecanoic acid, which hitherto had been isolated and identified from several natural sources including butterfat, ox perinephric fat and cow plasma, has now been found present in small amounts (2·9%) in the total fatty acids extracted from the rumen bacteria of a fistulated dairy cow fed a diet of clover-grass hay. This C20 multibranched fatty acid was not detected in the dietary clover-grass hay, and it is considered to have been derived from phytol by enzymic activity of the rumen bacteria.
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R. Hansen (1966) studied this question.
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