Biochemical Aspects of Fatty Acids with trans Double Bonds

✍ Scribed by Houtsmuller, U. M. T.

• Book ID: 102933522
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1978
• Weight: 798 KB
• Volume: 80
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0931-5985
• DOI: 10.1002/lipi.19780800407

✦ Synopsis

I n t r o d u c t i o n

Although fatty acids with trans double bonds do occur in some natural oils and fats, their main source in our diets is from partial hydrogenation. The objective of hydrogenation processes is to improve the physicochemical properties of oils used for the production of edible fats such as margarines. This is achieved, on the one hand, by hydrogenation of double bonds of highly unsaturated fatty acids, on the other hand, by the conversion of cis double bonds into their trans isomers. During these processes a wide variety of geometric and positional isomers of fatty acids arises, depending on the initial composition of the oils. In a discussion of the biochemical properties of such fatty acids, some generalisations on the various types of trans fatty acids have to be made. However, taking all trans' fatty acids together as one single group with identical propertiesas is often done in discussions on partially hydrogenated oils is too much of an oversimplification. In this paper a distinction will be madefrom a biochemical point of viewbetween different types of .trans" fatty acids.