FATTY ACID COMPOSITION OF MANY TOOTHEDPILOT WHALE OIL*
HIDEO TSUYUKI** AND SHINGO ITOH**
The Many toothed pilot whale, Peponocephala electra, is a new genus species which
was named by Nishiwaki and Norris (1966). It is not now known about the detailsof ecology and geographical distribution.
The purpose is minute examination of the component fatty acid of the Many
toothed pilot whale oil by gas-liquid chromatography using a hydrogen ionization
detector.
It is pleasure that the writers express here their sincere thanks to Prof. Dr. M.
Nishiwaki who is kind enogh to present us the Many toothed pilot whale oil.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

Sample used
Material is the Many toothed pilot whale which was caught in the Suruga Bay,
Shizuoka Prefecture, Ja pan, on March 23, 1965. The oil was extracted by boilingthe material with water and the properties are shown in Table 1.
The methyl ester of the fatty acids was prepared by the procedure of Sanoet al (1965, 1966) with the following modification.
In the first place, 5.0 grams of the sample oil was soluble in 5 times of n-hexaneand adding to 10 ml of anhydrous methanol and 2 ml of N /2 potassium hydroxidemethanol solution as catalyzer. After conducting on magnetic stirrer in nitrogen
atmosphere at room temperature for 1.5 hours, the reacted solution was also added
50 ml of half-saturated sodium chloride solution. Then, crude methyl ester of fatty
acids was extracted by 20 ml n-hexane for several times, and evaporated the solution
in nitrogen atmosphere, including release of a vacuum. The next, in order to refine
the crude methyl ester, it was soluted in 2 times of n-hexane and passed through inglass column of 2 cm diameter packed with 2.0 grams of silicic acid activated at
120°C for 1 hour. Also, column was flowed with 60 ml of ethyl ether-n-hexane(1: 50). The obtained solution was evaporated in nitrogen atmosphere releasing
vacuum, after the dehydration by anhydrous sodium sulfate. After all, it was obtained that 3.8 grams of refined methyl ester was no smell and colourless.
Gas-liquid chromatograph conditions
The methyl ester of fatty acids obtained from the Many toothed pilot whale* An outline of this article was presented to the Annual Meeting of Japanese Society of Scientific Fisheries,Tokyo, April 3, 1967.

** Department of Food Engineering, College of Agriculture & Veterinary Medicine, Nihon University (341, 3-chome, Shimouma, Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan).
137

TSUYUKI AND ITOH

138
TABLE 1.

PROPERTIES OF MANY TOOTHED PILOT WHALE OIL

Appearance (at 30°C)
Oil content (%)
Refractive index (at 40°C)
Specific gravity (at 26°C)
Viscosity (at 50°C)
Acid value
Iodine value (Wijs)
Saponification value
Unsaponifiables (%)

Yellowish orange liquid
57.0
1.4611
0.92260.4780
1.7
98.7
225.7
0.42

oil was analyzed with a Shimadzu Gas Chromatograph Model GC-IC. The instrument was equipped with a hydrogen ionization detector. The column used wascomposed of 3 mm I D by 225 cm U-sharped stainless steel containing diethylene
glycol succinate polyester (DEGS) supported on 30-60 mesh Shimalite. Operating
conditions were as follows; column temp. 215°C, injector temp. 260°C, detector
temp. 240°C, a column inlet pressure of 1.2 kg/cm 2 • N 2 was used, which measured
70 ml/min.
Chromatographic peaks were identified either by comparison of retention times
with those of standards or from a graph relationship (A. Seher & R. Kuhnast, 1965)
between logarithm of retention time and the number of carbon atoms, and alsohydrogenated methyl ester was used to verify the contained fatty acids of odd-carbon
chain lengths. The hydrogenation method was as follows; the n-hexanoate solutionof the methyl ester was added a pinch of platinum black as a catalyzer. The mixture was stirred with a magnetic stirrer for 24 hours in hydrogen atmosphere at room
temperature. After the hydrogenated methyl ester was filtered, gas chromatograph
was operated at the same conditions.
The fatty acids were evaluated quantitively by method of Magidman et al(1962). All fatty acids are reported as weight percentages of the total known fattyacids present.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results obtained are as follows; as saturated fatty acids, C 8 , C 10 , C 12 , C 14 , C 16 ,C 18 and C 20 , and as unsaturated fatty acids, C 10 monoenoic, C 12 monoenoic, C 12dienoic, C 14 monoenoic, C 14 dienoic, C 16 monoenoic, C 16 dienoic, C 16 trienoic, C 18monoenoic, C 18 dienoic, C 18 trienoic, C 20 monoenoic, C 20 dienoic, C 20 tetraenoic andalso odd-carbon chain lengths of C 13 , C 15 and C 19 •The percentages of these fatty acids are shown in Table 2.
The oil of the Many toothed pilot whale was comparatively lower acid value
and unsaponifiable matter content. Therefore it seems that the oil is glyceride andcontent of free acids is lower too.
According to Table 2, the fatty acid of the most prominent is C 18 monoenoic
28.1 %, and the next prominent is C 14 monoenoic 13.8 % and also saturated C 16 is
11.4 %. The total of these fatty acids holds really 52.3 %of all total fatty acids. The

MANY TOOTHED PILOT WHALE OIL
TABLE 2.

FATTY ACID COMPOSITION OF MANY TOOTHEDPILOT WHALE OIL
Weight per cent of total fatty acid
0.1
0.3
0.3
1.3
2.0
3.8
0.3
7.3
13.8
4.9
0.5
11.4
5.3
6.9
0.9
0.8
28.1
3.7
0.8
1.4
1.7
0.6
1.5
2.3

Fatty acid No.

8
10
10-1
1212-1
12-2
1314
14-1
14-2
15
16
16-1
16-2
16-3
1818-1
18-2
18-3
192020-120-220-4
TABLE 3.

Fatty acidNo.
8101213141516181920Total

139

A COMPARISON OF SATURATED AND UNSATURATEDFATTY ACID OF MANY TOOTHED PILOT
WHALE OIL·weight per cent of total fatty acid
Saturated
Unsaturated

0.1
0.3
1.3
0.3
7.3
0.5
11.4
0.8
1.4
1.7
25.1

0.3
5.8
18.7
13.1
32.6
4.4
74.9

proportions of other component fatty acids are as follows; saturated C 14 7.3 %, C 16
dienoic 6.9 %, C 16 monoenoic 5.3 %, C 14 dienoic 4.9 %, C 12 dienoic 3.8 %, C 18 dienoic
3.7%, C 20 tetraenoic 2.3%, C 12 monoenoic 2.0%, saturated C 20 1.7%, C 20 dienoic
1.5 %, saturated C 19 1.4 %, saturated C 12 1.3 %, C 16 trienoic 0.9 %, saturated C 18 0.8 %, C 18 trienoic 0.8 %, C 20 monoenoic 0.6 %, saturated C 15 0.5 %,140

TSUYUKI AND !TOH

saturated C 10 0.3 %, C 10 monoenoic 0.3 %, saturated C 13 0.3 % and saturated C 80.1%.
On the other hand, the proportions of total saturated fatty acids are 25.1 % in
preparation for 74.9 % of total unsaturated fatty acids (shown in Table 3). In
saturated fatty acids, C 16 is 11.4% of the largest quantity, the next C 14 is 7.3% andfurther C 20 is I. 7 %. Against these proportions, in total unsaturated fatty acids
holds nearly 3 times of percentages in comparison with that of saturated fatty acids.
SUMMARY

1) The properties of Many toothed pilot whale oil were studied.
2) Fatty acid composition of Many toothed pilot whale oil was analyzed byliquid chromatograph using a hydrogen ionization detector on a DEGS column.
3) The results obtained are as follows;
Total saturated fatty acids
octanoic
decanoic
dodecanoic
tridecanoic
tetradecanoic
pentadecanoic
hexadecanoic
octadecanoic
nonadecanoic.
.
e1cosano1c

25.l %:
0.1%
0.3%
0.3%
0.3%
7.3%
0.5%
11.4%
0.8%
1.4%
1.7%

Total unsaturated fatty acids
C 10 monoenoic
C 12 monoenoic
C 12 dienoic
C 14 monoenoic
C 14 dienoic
c16 monoenoic
c16 dienoic
c16 trienoic
C 18 monoenoic
C 18 dienoic
C 18 trienoic
C 20 monoenoic
C 20 dienoic
C 20 tetraenoic

74.9%:
0.3%
2.0%
3.8%
13.8%
4.9%
5.3%
6.9%
0.9%
28.1 %
3.7%
0.8%
0.6%
1.5%
2.3%

MANY TOOTHED PILOT WHALE OIL

141

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