SILVER ION HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC SEPARATION OF FATTY-ACID METHYL-ESTERS LABELED WITH DEUTERIUM ATOMS ON THE DOUBLE-BONDS

Silver ion HPLC (acetonitrile in hexane as solvent) was used to separa te non-deuterated fatty acid methyl esters (cis-9-octadecenoate, cis-9 ,cis-12-octadecadienoate and cis-9,cis-12,cis-15-octadecatrienoate) fr om their analogues labelled with deuterium atoms on one or more of the double bonds. Placement of the deuterium atoms on the double bonds in creased the retention time of the fatty acid methyl esters and could h ave useful applications in the analysis or isolation of deuterium-labe lled fats and other metabolic products produced during the synthesis a nd metabolism of deuterium-labelled fatty acids. The % composition dat a, obtained by silver ion HPLC, can be used to evaluate isotopic purit y.