EFFECTS OF IONIZING RADIATION ON SOME VEGETABLE FATS

The volatile compounds produced by irradiation, under vacuum at 6 megarads, in five vegetable fats were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. A series of compounds, n-alkanes, 1-alkenes, internally unsaturated alkenes, alkadienes, alkatrienes, alkanals and methyl and ethyl esters of fatty acids, were identified in each of the fats studied. A wide variation occurs in the amounts of the volatiles produced from each fat. The major radiolytic products were few in number and were found to depend largely on the fatty acid composition of the fat. These compounds were essentially the hydrocarbons containing one or two carbon atoms less than the component fatty acids. This relationship was found consistent if radiolytic products of fats with different fatty acid compositions are compared or if the fatty acid composition of the same fat is altered by hydrogenation. The results correlate well with those of earlier studies on simple triglycerides. © 1969 AOCS Press.