Elaidic acid in rat liver identified by gas chromatography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Fatty acid composition has been commonly determined by gas chromatography (GC). In the most commonly used methods, the lipids must be converted into methyl esters or other derivatives of the fatty acids before being analyzed by GC. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has become one of the most promising methods to determine organic structures, providing useful data for analyzing the fatty acid composition of edible vegetable oils. The major advantage of NMR is that identification of each fatty acid is carried out by evaluation of particular signals. We report in this work the fatty acid profile of rat liver after consumption of diets containing different concentrations of partially hydrogenated vegetable fat. The fatty acid composition was identified by GC, and trans fatty acids were also identified by 13C NMR spectroscopy. The results obtained by the 13C NMR method were close enough to those obtained by conventional GC.