DETERMINATION OF TRIACYLGLYCEROL COMPOSITION OF IDIAZABAL CHEESE

Triacylglycerols from Idiazabal cheese fat were analysed by high-perfo rmance liquid chromatography (LC) with a non-linear gradient of aceton e in acetonitrile and a light-scattering detector. Molecular species o f triacylglycerols were predicted by a simple and a multiple linear re gression analysis of log k of the LC peaks and molecular variables suc h as equivalent carbon number of the possible triacylglycerol, chain l ength and number of double bonds of each fatty acid of the triacylglyc erol. Predicted results were confirmed by gas chromatographic analysis of the fatty acids in the LC peaks. The main triacylglycerols of Idia zabal cheese fat contained butyric acid, butyroyl-dipalmitin, butyroyl -myristoyl-palmitin and butyroyl-palmitoyl-olein. The most abundant tr iacylglycerols were those with even partition numbers of 36, 34 and 38 .