Fatty Acid Distribution in Lipides from Eggs Produced by Hens Fed Cottonseed Oil and Cottonseed Fatty Acid Fractions

HEN’S eggs are a rich source of lipides. An average size 51.6 gm. egg contains 6.1 gm. of lipide (Romanoff and Romanoff, 1949). Any changes in composition of the egg yolk fatty acids resulting from changes in the hen's diet are important in human nutrition. Cruickshank (1934) used iodine and thiocyanogen values; and Reiser (1950 and Reiser (1951), Fisher and Leveille (1957), and Feigenbaum and Fisher (1959) used alkali isomeration to determine differences in amounts of saturated and unsaturated acids in eggs from hens fed fats of widely differing fatty acid compositions. The development of gas-liquid chromatographic methods for separation of the methyl esters of fatty acids gives a tool for the direct determination of fatty acids in egg lipides. In this study, hens were fed a basal ration containing 4 percent lipide plus smaller amounts of crude cottonseed oil or various fractions of the mixed fatty acids from the oil and …