title: Rapid isolation of omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids using monolithic high performance liquid chromatography columns.
abstract: Eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids are important bio-active fatty acids in fish oils. Monolithic HPLC columns both in the polymeric cation exchange (silver-ion) and RP formats were compared with corresponding packed columns for the isolation of these acids from tuna oil ethyl esters. Monolithic columns in both formats enabled rapid (typically 5-10 min) separations compared with packed columns (30 min). Polymeric monolithic silver-ion disc column rapidly furnished mixtures of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic esters (90% purity) within 5-10 min, but was unable to resolve individual esters. A preparative version of the same column (80 mL bed volume) enabled isolation (>88% purity) of 100 mg quantities of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic esters from esterified tuna oil within 6 min. Baseline separation of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic esters was achieved on all RP columns. The results show that there is potential to use polymeric monolithic cation exchange columns for scaled-up preparation of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic ester concentrates from fish oils.
authors.affiliation: CSIRO Food Futures Flagship (Future Grains), Werribee, Victoria, Australia. Peter.Fagan@csiro.au
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fagan
authors.forename: Chakra
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wijesundera
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004281:Docosahexaenoic Acids / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015118:Eicosapentaenoic Acid / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015525:Fatty Acids, Omega-3 / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005395:Fish Oils / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015394:Molecular Structure; D014413:Tuna
chemical_list: D015525:Fatty Acids, Omega-3; D005395:Fish Oils; D004281:Docosahexaenoic Acids; D015118:Eicosapentaenoic Acid