Patent ID: 8795980

Claim:
A method for assessment of previous ethanol exposure in a subject comprising the steps of: (i) obtaining a sample from the body of the subject; (ii) removing one or both of the carboxylic acid residues from compounds of Formula II present in said sample by selective hydrolysis, (iii) quantitatively determining a level of reaction product from step (ii); and (iv) using said level to assess previous ethanol exposure in the subject; wherein the subject is a human or animal; said selective hydrolysis is performed by a hydrolase selected from the group consisting of pancreatic triacylglycerol lipases, lipoprotein lipases, lingual lipase, monoacylglycerol lipases, diacylglycerol lipases, hepatic lipases, triglyceride lipases; and R 1 and R 2 are independently selected from straight or branched C 9-39 alkyl, C 9-39 alkenyl, C 9-39 alkdienyl and C 9-39 alktrienyl.