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Determination and Structural Elucidation of Triacylglycerols in Krill Oil by Chromatographic Techniques

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Lipids

Abstract

The content of triacylglycerols (TAG) in krill oil is generally omitted from the labels of commercial supplements and unacknowledged in studies aimed at proving its health benefits. The present study demonstrates that TAG compounds, in addition to phospholipids and lysophospholipids, are an important lipid class in pure krill oil. The fatty acid composition of TAG molecules from krill oil and their distribution on the backbone of TAG structures were determined by gas chromatography and liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometric, respectively. The content of omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) was similar to those reported in the literature for fish oil. It was estimated that 21 % of n-3 PUFA were at the sn-2 position of TAG structures. To our knowledge, this is the first determination and structural characterization of TAG in pure krill oil supplements.

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Acknowledgments

HZ is grateful for financial support from the Erasmus Mundus programme EMQAL (European Joint Master in Quality in Analytical Laboratories).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES), PO Box 2029, Nordnes, 5817, Bergen, Norway

    Pedro Araujo, Han Zhu, Joar Fjørtoft Breivik & Jan Idar Hjelle

  2. Department of Chemistry, University of Bergen, 5009, Bergen, Norway

    Han Zhu & Yingxu Zeng

Authors
  1. Pedro Araujo
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  2. Han Zhu
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  3. Joar Fjørtoft Breivik
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  4. Jan Idar Hjelle
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  5. Yingxu Zeng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pedro Araujo.

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Supplementary material 2 (DOC 58 kb)

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Araujo, P., Zhu, H., Breivik, J.F. et al. Determination and Structural Elucidation of Triacylglycerols in Krill Oil by Chromatographic Techniques. Lipids 49, 163–172 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11745-013-3855-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11745-013-3855-6

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