Determination by capillary gas-liquid chromatography of the absolute configurations of unsaturated fatty acid hydroperoxides formed by lipoxygenases.

The absolute configurations of a number of unsaturated hydroperoxy fatty acids obtained by lipoxygenase catalysis were investigated by capillary gas-liquid chromatography after proper derivatization. To this end the hydroperoxy groups were reduced and the resulting hydroxyl groups acetylated. Oxidative ozonolysis of the acetylated methyl esters yielded acetylated 2-hydroxycarboxylic acids, which were converted into R-(--)-2-butyl esters and then reacetylated. The ratio of the resulting diastereomers, which reflects the optical purity of the chiral centers in the parent hydroperoxy fatty acids, was determined by capillary gas-liquid chromatography. Application of this simple method to a number of mono- and dihydroperoxy fatty acids obtained by incubation with soybean lipoxygenase-1 or -2, or by corn-germ lipoxygenase yields enantiometric compositions which are in good agreement with results obtained by other methods.