The component fatty acids of rat body fats

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Abstract
The component acids of the body fat of the rat are made up of palmitic (25-30%), myristic (4-5%) and small amts. of stearic (2-3%), the remainder (about 65-70%) consisting chiefly of oleic acid, apparently with small quantities of palmitoleic acid; linoleic acid is, however, almost entirely absent. When the diet includes cod-liver oil, some of the highly un-saturated acids of the C 20 and C22 series may occur in the depot fats, but otherwise little modification occurs, and the proportion of linoleic acid is only slightly increased. The perinephric fat of a wild rabbit contained similar amts. of myristic acid (4.5%), palmitic (23%) and steario (4%) acids, but the unsaturated acids (68.5%) consisted mainly of linoleic acid; considerable amts. of linolenic acid were also present. Fully saturated components (almost wholly tripalmitin) made up 2-3% of the rat body fat and 6-7% of the rabbit fat. There seem to be at least 2 well-defined groups of depot fats characteristic of land (i.e., non-aquatic) animals: (a) Fats with component fatty acids containing about 30-35 saturated (usually 25-30% palmitic) acids and for the rest unsaturated acids of varying type (oleic, linoleic, etc.). In these stearic acid is a minor component (not exceeding ca. 5%), and fully-saturated components are present in only small proportions and consist mainly of tripalmitin. The rodent body fats discussed in this paper, and probably also bird depot fats, fall in this category, (b) Fats with component fatty acids made up of ca. 25-30% palmitic and small amts. of myristic acids, the remaining 65-70% consisting of stearic, oleic and linoleic acids. In this group (to which belong the depot fats of the pig, ox, sheep, horse, reindeer) the proportion of stearic acid is variable but usually important. The greater the amt. of stearic acid (with correspondingly less oleic acid), the greater is the proportion of fully saturated glycerides in the fat; in this group these consist for the most part of mixed palmitostearins.

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