Fatty alcohols in capelin, herring and mackerel oils and muscle lipids: I. Fatty alcohol details linking dietary copepod fat with certain fish depot fats.

It is shown that the shorter chain (C14-C18) minor fatty alcohols in copepods, fish body lipids, and commercial fish oils are all qualitatively present, and quantitatively similar in proportions to acids found in the depot fats of capelin and mackerel, and in some herring. Although these fatty acids can be formed de novo in fish, copepod alcohols offer an alternative dietary source. Monoethylenic fatty alcohol details, especially for the 22:1 isomers, are reviewed, and the latter are discussed as precursors of the 22:1 fatty acids of fish depot fats, specifically of the dominant 22:1 omega 11 isomer.