There is consistent evidence that long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) belonging to the
n-3 series, i.e., eicosapentaenoic (20:5
n-3, EPA) and docosahexaenoic (22:6
n-3, DHA) acids, decrease the risk of heart, circulatory and inflammatory diseases. Furthermore, the bioavailability of such
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There is consistent evidence that long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) belonging to the
n-3 series, i.e., eicosapentaenoic (20:5
n-3, EPA) and docosahexaenoic (22:6
n-3, DHA) acids, decrease the risk of heart, circulatory and inflammatory diseases. Furthermore, the bioavailability of such fatty acids has been shown to depend on their location in triacylglycerol (TG) molecules at the
sn-2 position. Consequently, great attention has been accorded to the synthesis of structured acylglycerols (sAG), which include EPA or DHA at the
sn-2 position. The aim of this work was to synthesize sAG starting from deodorized refined commercial salmon oil. For this, immobilized lipase B from
Candida antarctica (nonspecific) was used as a catalyst for the intra–interesterification process under CO
2 supercritical conditions (CO
2SC). According to the CO
2SC reaction time, three different fractions including sAG compounds were obtained. The location of EPA and DHA at the
sn-2 position in the resulting glycerol backbone was identified by mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF) analysis. In all fractions obtained, a marked decrease in the starting TG content was observed, while an increase in the DHA content at the
sn-2 position was detected. The fraction obtained after the longest reaction time period (2 h) led to the highest yield of
sn-2 position DHA in the resulting sAG molecule.
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