## 3 Results and Discussion
### Profile of Fatty Acids  
The qualitative composition and relative abundances (percentage from total FA) of FA in dairy-based beverages is shown in Table 3. Unfortunately, the low total fat content of mhaewu (less than 1%, Table 1) did not allow a reliable extraction process to be performed. In total, in all beverages, 31 different FA were detected, 15 of which belonged to the group of saturated fatty acids (SFA), five to monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), four to polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA, all \"n-6\"), four to branched chain fatty acids (BCFA) and three 2-hydroxy fatty acids (2 OH-FA). Qualitatively, the greatest number of different FA were detected in kefir (15--SFA, five--MUFA, four--PUFA, three--BCFA and three--2 OH-FA), followed by ryzzhenka (15--SFA, five--MUFA, three--PUFA, two-BCFA and one--2 OH-FA) and amasi (11--SFA, four--MUFA, one--PUFA and three--BCFA). All FA detected in ryzzhenka and amasi were also present in kefir; the exception was one BCFA (anteiso-C17:0) uniquely presented in amasi. In terms of overall FA contents, in amasi the proportion of SFA and BCFA (65% and 1.8%, respectively) was significantly higher than in kefir (63 and 1.2%, respectively) and ryzzhenka (64 and 1.2%, respectively); the proportion of PUFA (2.0%) was significantly lower than in kefir (5.5%) and ryzzhenka (5.0%); the proportion of MUFA was statistically the same (30-31%). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multicolumn{1}{c}{**Fatty Acid**} & \multicolumn{6}{c}{**Relative Abundance, \%**} \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Name**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Abbreviation**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Kefir**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Ryazhenka**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Amasi**} \\ \cline{3-8}  & & **Mean** & **SD** & **Mean** & **SD** & **Mean** & **SD** \\ \hline \multicolumn{8}{c}{Saturated Fatty Acids (SFA)} \\ Butanoic acid & C4:0 & 1.82  & 0.054 & 1.64  & 0.092 & ND & - \\ Pentanoic acid & C5:0 & 0.04 & 0.011 & 0.03 & 0.009 & ND & - \\ Hexanoic acid & C6:0 & 1.77 & 0.126 & 1.65 & 1.002 & 1.81 & 0.254 \\ Heptanoic acid & C7:0 & 0.05 & 0.017 & 0.04 & 0.010 & ND & - \\ Octanoic acid & C8:0 & 1.46  & 0.025 & 1.30  & 0.102 & 1.49  & 0.132 \\ Nonanoic acid & C9:0 & 0.07 & 0.008 & 0.05 & 0.003 & ND & - \\ Decanoic acid & C10:0 & 3.63  & 0.074 & 3.26  & 0.021 & 4.00  & 0.082 \\ Undecanoic acid & C11:0 & 0.13 & 0.014 & 0.09 & 0.012 & 0.08 & 0.008 \\ Dodecanoic acid & C12:0 & 4.41  & 0.220 & 3.91  & 0.081 & 4.07  & 0.051 \\ Tidecanoic acid & C13:0 & 0.16 & 0.022 & 0.14 & 0.021 & 0.09 & 0.030 \\ Tetradecanoic acid & C14:0 & 10.48 & 0.682 & 10.84 & 0.321 & 10.38 & 0.260 \\ Pentadecanoic acid & C15:0 & 1.50  & 0.041 & 1.61  & 0.021 & 1.22  & 0.018 \\ Hexadecanoic acid & C16:0 & 25.07  & 0.173 & 24.32  & 0.210 & 25.66  & 0.050 \\ Heptadecanoic acid & C17:0 & 0.63 & 0.010 & 1.24 & 0.021 & 0.52 & 0.010 \\ Octadecanoic acid & C18:0 & 11.90  & 0.193 & 13.53  & 0.224 & 15.83  & 0.150 \\ Total SFA & & 63.11  & 0.780 & 63.65  & 1.109 & 65.15  & 0.430 \\ \multicolumn{8}{c}{Monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA)} \\
4-Decenoic acid & C10:1 (\(n-6\)) & 0.38 & 0.021 & 0.34 & 0.008 & 0.35 & 0.006 \\
9-Tetradecenoic acid & C14:1 (\(n-5\)) & 1.21 & 0.012 & 1.16 & 0.026 & 0.85 & 0.041 \\
9-Hexadecenoic acid & C16:1 (\(n-7\)) & 1.92 & 0.081 & 1.72 & 0.102 & 1.28 & 0.026 \\
9-Octadecenoic acid & C18:1 (\(n-9\)) & 20.45  & 0.410 & 21.72  & 0.320 & 28.53  & 0.970 \\
12-Octadecenoic acid & C18:1 (\(n-6\)) & 6.06 & 1.021 & 5.21 & 0.524 & ND & - \\ Total MUFA & & 30.02 & 1.103 & 30.15 & 0.623 & 31.02 & 0.971 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Fatty acids (FA) composition of kefir, ryzhenka and amasi. It is well known that the consumption of certain dietary fats, which are generally FA, may exert either positive or negative effects on human health [34; 35; 36]. To evaluate the potential role of FA in the treatment and prevention of diseases, many nutritional indices for assessing FA content of food have been developed over time.