ified oils obtained by acidolyses of safflower, linseed, borage, TGA25 and tuna oils.
The results showed that three-time acidolyses of oils except tuna oil exchanged all
fatty acids at 1,3-positions for CA. In addition, no generation of tricaprylin or partial
glycerides confirmed that simultaneous hydrolysis and non-enzymatic acyl migra-
tion scarcely occurred. Therefore, the fatty acid composition at 2-position can be
determined from the fatty acid composition of the transesterified oil obtained by
three-times repeated reaction (Shimada et al., 1997c). However, becauseRhizopus
lipase acted on DHA only very weakly, all DHA at 1,3-positions of tuna oil were not
exchanged for CA. If a 1,3-positional-specific lipase were to be available which
acted on all fatty acids strongly, it would be a good catalyst for the enzymatic re-
giospecific analysis.
8.6 Conclusion
The studies on lipid-related compounds have been delayed compared with those on
protein and carbohydrate, because it is difficult to handle those which are insoluble in
water and also to determine their structures by microanalysis. However, biotechnol-
ogy which was developed mainly during the 1980s has been introduced to the field of
the oil and fat industry, and a new technology – lipids engineering – has evolved
rapidly. In this chapter, we have described the production of PUFA-rich oils and
highly absorbable structured lipids from the viewpoint of high-value added oils
as foods. Lipases are available for other industrial fields. For example, the enzyme
made it possible to purify PUFA from natural oil (Shimada et al., 1997a,d,e; 1998b–
e; 1999a), and to convert vegetable oils efficiently to biodiesel fuel (fatty acid
methylesters) – a technique which has attracted considerable attention with increas-
ing environmental consciousness (Nelson et al., 1996; Shimada et al., 1999c). In
future, we expect further applications of lipases to the improvement of oils and
fats, syntheses of useful esters, and to other areas of industrial processing.
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