Determination of Fatty Acid Composition and Oxidation in Fish Oils by High Resolution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

Fatty acids are key components of fish lipids, and the analysis of them is usually carried out for the characterization of fish oils. Fish oils contain a wide variety of fatty acids (Table 1). Thus, Ackman^[1] has reported as many as 50 or 60 components, though only about 14 of these are of importance in terms of weight percent of the total. They are low in saturated fatty acids (mainly myristic and palmitic acids) and high in unsaturated fatty acids, especially those unsaturated acids with long chains containing 20 or 22 carbons or more, and up to six double bonds.