Properties of Fats and Oils contained in Various
Parts of a Sperm vVhale Body .
Takajiro Mori and Masamichi SaikiIntroduction.

1-33)

Numerous studies have been made since the olden times on whale oil.
Many works have been mad~ . on its physico-chemical properties, on thecomponents of its fatty acids and its saponifiable matter and their properties. However, these studies have chiefly been confined to the oils fromwhale blubber, bones and head cavity and there has been very little evidence of chemical studies made on oils from large and small intestines,liver, kidney and other organs. It seemed that it would not only be interesting to make a study of oils from various organs from , the point of fat
metabolism but also necessary from the point of their utilization. Therefore, studies in this line were made.
Experimental materials
The present experiments were carried out with 2 heads of sperm
whales (Physeter macrocePhalus L.) which were caught off Kinkazan point(Miyagi Prefecture in the northeastern part of Japan). One was a male(Sperm Whale B). measuring 34 feet long, caught in September 1946, andthe other, also a male (Sperm Whale A), measuring 35 feet long, caug~t
on 23rd. September 1947. Each individual animal was dissected in thedissecting room, various parts collected and those from which oil can beobtained by boiling, i. e; skins, large and small intestines, were boiled on thespot. Those difficult to put to this procedure, i. e. liver and large and small
intestines of the Sperm Whale A, were frozen and sent to the laboratory.
In the laboratory, these organs were defrosted, dehydrated by treatment
with alcohol, car.bon dioxide then blown in and dried in· vacuum. After
this dried organs were pulverized, it wa~ extracted by ether in a Soxhlet
The alcohol used for dehydration was evaporated underextractor.
reduced pressure and dried and this residue was shaken with ether. This
ether and that from the Soxhlet extractor were brought together and after
drying with anhydrous sodium sulfate, the ether solution was dropped into

Takajiro Mori and Masamichi Saiki

80

dry· acetone while ·stirring constantly and the phospholipid precipitated
was filtered off.34>
Acetone and ether were driven off under reduced pressure in carbon
dioxide stream and some oil was obtained. The ether extract from theliver of Sperm Whale B amounted to 11.73% of dried matter. The oilfrom the head cavity was collected when the oil flowed out at the time ofdissection. This head oil (oil from the head cavity) is a white solid at aroom temperature, forms a pale, yellow liquid at (around) 30° and precipitates about half the amount of white, clou4y crystals at around 25°.
The blubber oil ( Oil from the skin) is pale yellow. The oil obtained
from large and small intestines is yellow, but that obtained by ether
extraction is brown. During the summer, intestinal oil is liquid but pricipitates solid matter during the winter (11°C). Liver oil is brown andremains liquid, although slightlY viscous, all through the winter.
These samples were treated w:[th acid clay or activated charcoal andyellow oils were obtained which were used for the following experiments.
, Experiment
Neutral oils- With the above samples, specific gravity, coefficient ofrefraction, add value and saponification value were measured in an ordinarymanner, and the ipdine value by Wijs' method. Saponification was limited
to 2 hours. Vitamin A content was also measured by Beckmann's spectrophotometer. The results obtained are shown in Tables I and II.
Neutral Oils from Sperm Whale A.

Table I.

ri

Non40° Acid
Vitamin
Sapon. Iodine
nD
Value Value Value sapon. A (I. U.)
matter- - -- - - ---1--Head oil
White soild
140.71 ! 55.01
0.8744 1.4500
0.73
44.98
103·Blubber
Pale yellow liquid
0.8779 1.4570
0.75
131.08
82.33
35.!?1370
Small intestine Pale yellow liquid
0.8879 1.4570
2.01
156.8478.88
17.35865
Large intestine Pale yellow liquid
1.4522154.48
13.36
77.71
19.18
1
Liver[Brown, viscous liquid
1.4711
2.64
165.3492.41
19.01 12,655
Par1;sAppearance

Parts

Appearance

25°

d o4

Table. II.

.Head oilBlubber
Small intestine
Large inte.stine
LiverIWhite solid
Pale yellow liquid
Pale yellow liquid
Pale yellow liquid
Dark brown
semi-solidI

Neutral Oils from Sperm Whale B.
26"32°Acid Value I Sapon.
I Iodined 4onD! ValueValuer0.8752
0.87920.90560.9054-1.4689
1.46961.4721
1.47241.4861

0.52
0.36
1.03
1.01
18.83

142.35127.89155.91

I

57.57
82.13
78.23
79.41
82.12

Properties of Fats and Oils contained in Various Parts of a Sperm Whale Body

. 81

Although the whales A and B are different individuals," all values inthe two above tables are similar, showing that there are very little difference between the individual animal.
Non-saponifiable matter- The samples were saponified with alcoholic potash,
water added and shaken 4 times with ether. combined ether solution waswashed with water, dried with sodium sulfate and ether evaporated underblowing in carbon dioxid~.
Non-saponifiable matter from all the samples were a pale yellow solid
during the winter (11°C) and the properties are as shown in Table III.
·The melting points were determined in a capillary tube, values being thatof the beginning and end of melting.
Tabfo ill.
Parts

Properties of Non-Saponifiable Matter from the Sperm Whale A.
Appearance

Head oilBlubber
Small intestine
Large intestine

I

Pale yellow solid
Pale yellow solidIPale yellow solid I
Pale yellow solid

40QnDI1.44501.45001.4490I

1.4500IIII

Melting point

Iodine value(Wijs')

35.0-37.0
20.5-24.0
29.5-31.8
29.D-31.8

39.08
71.74
51.72

(QC)

50.53

Fatty acids- The aqeous solution obtained by the removal of nonsaponifiable
matter was evaporate'd under reduced pressure to remove alcohol, hydrochloric acid added and ·the freed fatty acid extracted by ether. This was treatedin the same way as for non-saponifiable matter. Of the fatty acids obtained:
Mixed fatty acids from the skin oil was a pale brown liquid during thewinter (11°C) precipitating some solid fats ; That from head oil was paleyellow solid, with a mixture of some crystalline solid fats ; and those fromlarge and small intestines were a yellow solid. Properties of these fatty
acids are shown in Table IV.
Table IV.

Mixd Fatty Acids from the Sperm Whale A.

Parts40QnD

Melting point(QC)lodine value(Wijs')

Head oilBlubber oil
Small intestine oil
Large intestine oil

1.44371.45111.45301.451816.0-20.0
13.5-18.028.0-31.0
28.0-31.5

56.44

246.68

80.57
79.54

199.22194.66

81.85

195.:n'III

Neutralization·
Value

Solid and Liquid Acids- Solid and liquid fats were obtained from themixture of fatty acids using about 10 g of each sample according to Twitchelrs method:i.">. The solid acids here obtained were white solids, andliquid acids from intestinal. and head oils were yellow,· that from blubber

82J

Takajiro Mori and Masamichi Saikioil, yellowish brown. . The properties of these solid and liquid acids areshown in Tables V and VI.
Table V.
--------Parts
Head oilBlubber·------------I!

!

Small intestine I'
Large intestine

Appearance

Solid Fatty Acids from the Sperm Whale A.

·---llagainst
ercentage \total
5fatty acidI 21.31% 'White solidWhite solidWhite solidWhite solid
Tale VI.

10.07%
18.64%
19.29%

1Appearance

1.42891.4352
1.4363
1.4368Percentage

I

point'("C)'38-3950-52
50-52.5
50-52.5

40°! against totalnDfatty acid-------1Yellow liquid
78.69%i

Head oilBlubber
Small intestine
Large intestine- ~fMelting - Iodine value Neutraliza(Wijs')

tion value

3.06
14.56
15.39.
11.48

250.63213.62211.36210.49Liquid fatty acids from the Sperm Whale A.

,.--------Parts

60°nD

Yellowish brown
Iliquid
Yellow liquid
I!
Yellow liquidI89.93%
81~36%

80.71%

Iodine value(Wijs')

Neutralization
value-----------I

1.44501.45221.45501.4542

73.93
92.26
95.07
91.03

236.12194.72
187.25187.83

Summary and Discussions
1) The blubber oil of the sperm whale, especially the oil from its headcavity, is composed of fatty acidsof small molecular weight and is unique'to it except the butter fat. As a result of the present experiments, it has
been found that the average molecular weight of fatty acids was thesmallest in those contained in head oil, that from the blubber oil next andfollowed by large and small intestine and liver oil, which contained thelarge molecular weight acids although the values were approximately similar(estimated_ from the amount of non-asponifiable matter of neutral fats andthe saponification value).
Both the solid and l:quid acids from the head oil were of small molecular weight compared to other oils from other organs.
2) The degree of unsaturation of mixed fatty acid is the smallest in thehead oil, those from blubber, large and small intestines are about the sameand are larger. This seems to be due to the fact that the head oil contains a large amount of solid acids and that the degree of unsaturation ofits liquid acid is small compared to the oils of other organs.
3) It is known that sperm whales feast largely on quantities of squids
proof of which was borne out by the discovery of a large amount of themin the stomachs of the sperm whales used for these experiments. In order.

..

Properties of Fats and Oils contained in Various Parts of a Sperm Whale Body83

to find the relationship between the specific nature of sperm whales andthe oil of squids devoured as their chief food, reference was made to theanalysis of the oil from a certain kind of squids caught in the Hokkaido,
Japan, by Mitsumaru Tsujimoto:IB\This analysis showed that this oil
contained a very small amount of non-saponifiable matter and its degree ofurrsaturation was exceedingly high. Comparison of similar data by E.
Andre and H. Canal37) showed that the degree of unsaturation was alsohigh in the French squid oil but contained more non-saponifiable matterthan the Japanese squid oil, values being near those of sperm oil. Accor·
ding to these French investigators, the non-saponifiable matter contains,differing from the sperm oil, no aliphatic alcohols, either saturated orunsaturated. From these facts, it is assumed that sperm whales utilize
these squid oils to turn into its own oil.
4) As has been shown in the foregoing, sperm whales possess a large
amount of wax so that it gives abnormally high amount of non-saponifiable
matter. In the present experiments, the amount of non-saponifiable matterin the head and bfobber oil was exceedingly large but that from large andsmall intestine and liver oil was only one-half of the former, being about
the medium between the oil of sulfur bottom and that of sperm whale. It
is interesting to note that the average moleclar weight of fatty acids andthe amount of non-saponifiable matter are in an inverse ratio in the abovetwo.
It would be interesting to study the relationship between these facts
and the fat metabolism in whale bodies and if such a relation does exist,
what significance it has. These must be left for the future.
5) The degree of unsaturation of the non-saponifiable matter is the smallest in head oil, followed by the oils of large and small intestines whichwere about the same, and largest in the blubber oil.
Our thanks are due to the Department of Education for grants in
aid of this research.
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84

Takajiro Mori and Masamichi Saiki

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