Separation experiments with fatty acids

R. J. Hamilton Liverpool Polytechnic Liverpool, England

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Separation Experiments with Fatty Acids

The chemistry of fatty acids is described in lectures for most introductorv courses of chemistrv and hiochemistrv: vet. in the laboratory classes, fatty acids are rarely handled bn the gram scale ( I ) . Fatty acids are obtained easily and cheaply in the form of their triglycerides which are present in the commercial products, e..g, corn oil, cottonseed oil, and tallow. When they are saponified, most of these commercial oils and fats yield mixtures of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids which are difficult to separate, except on the milligram scale. Distillation. crvstallization. column chromatoeraohv. " . .. and partitioning are