Molecular weight distributions of milk fat triglycerides from seven species.

The triglyceride compositions of the milk fats of man, dog, guinea pig, cow, sheep, goat, and horse were compared by gas-liquid chromatography of the intact triglycerides and of the butyl esters of the component fatty acids. The milk fats of man, dog, and guinea pig, which were largely made up of long-chain fatty acids, showed a common pattern with major contributions made by the glycerides with 48-54 acyl carbon atoms. The milk fats of cow, sheep, and goat, which were rich in short-chain acids, showed significant proportions of triglycerides with 28-54 acyl carbon atoms. Horse milk, which contains large amounts of medium-chain fatty acids, gave a characteristic triglyceride pattern in the 26-54 carbon atoms range. The experimentally determined distributions of the molecular weights of the triglycerides of all milk fats deviated significantly from the distributions predicted by random association of the fatty acids from a single pool. The data suggest that in all species the milk fat may be formed by a partial resynthesis of preformed glycerides.