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Isolation of pure linolenate as its mercuric acetate adduct

  • Published:
Journal of the American Oil Chemists’ Society

Abstract

After addition of mercuric acetate to the unsaturated methyl esters obtained from the methanolysis of linseed oil, linolenate of 99% minimum purity was isolated by means of a liquid-liquid continuous extraction technique and subsequent decomposition of the mercurial adduet. The methyl linolenate-mercuric acetate addition compound was extracted with 10% methanol in water from an ether solution of the reaction mixture. Infrared analysis of the regenerated methyl linolenate showed the complete absence oftrans-linkages. The yield, at least 60% of the linolenic acid present in linseed oil, was considerably higher than that obtained by bromination-debromination procedures.

The solubility in aqueous solutions of fatty acid derivatives having 3 or more acetoxymer-euri-groups/molecule provides an approach to the fractionation of highly unsaturated oils. For example, a fraction having an iodine value of 395 was isolated readily from the methyl esters of pilchard oil by this technique.

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Author notes

  1. H. B. White

    Present address: Department of Biochemistry, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Miss.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana

    H. B. White & F. W. Quackenbush

Authors
  1. H. B. White
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  2. F. W. Quackenbush
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White, H.B., Quackenbush, F.W. Isolation of pure linolenate as its mercuric acetate adduct. J Am Oil Chem Soc 39, 517–519 (1962). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02672541

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02672541

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