Lipid Chemistry & Health Research Program
The mission of this program is to address basic/applied research problems related to food oils, fats and related products, including the development of lipid-based functional foods. Current research involves pilot plant and laboratory scale production of novel CLA-rich soy oil and other linoleic acid-rich vegetable oils; triacylglyceride characterization by HPLC and other methods; comparative oxidation studies with conventional soy oil and CLA-rich oil. Our current work is supported by USDA-NRI, Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board and Institute of Food Science and Engineering, Arkansas Division of Agriculture.
Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is a group of octadecadienoic fatty acids with human health benefits including tumor size reduction, decrease in body fat, immune system enhancement, atherosclerosis prevention, and reduction of the risk of diabetes. Dairy and beef food products, are the only natural sources of CLA, but are high in cholesterol and saturated fat, and present only in trace amounts.
CLA-rich soy oil has recently been synthesized in our laboratory to provide large amounts of dietary CLA (20%) in soy oil, a naturally low saturated fat, cholesterol free food.
The Lipid Chemistry and Health program has well equipped laboratories with chromatography and spectroscopy facilities including GC-FID and GC-MS analysis capability, analytical and HPLC preparative instrumentation, FTIR and FTNIR spectroscopy with UV.Vis spectroscopy. We also have access to additional MS and NMR facilities.
We are also experienced in working on industrial research problems related to rice bran lipase, subsequent lipid oxidation activity and the chemistry of vegetable oil adsorption processing.
Research areas include:
Conjugated linoleic acid synthesis from soy oil:
Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) has gained universal interest owing to its anti-carcinogenic, anti-mutagenic, and anti-obesity health promoting effects. We are developing a pilot plant scale system to rapidly produce CLA-rich soy oil in large quantities for food applications.
We are investigating:
- Synthesis of CLA-rich soy oil by irradiating soy oil lamella in presence of iodine catalyst.
- Elucidation of CLA photo-isomerization mechanism.
- Kinetics of photo-isomerization induced CLA synthesis.
- Linoleic acid-rich oils as sources of high-CLA oil.
- Photo-isomerization catalysts.
- High-CLA functional food products as effective delivery systems for human CLA intake.
CLA synthesis in various linoleic acid rich vegetable oils:
CLA yields of various linoleic acid - rich vegetable oils are being compared for their CLA yield.
We are investigating:
- Comparison of CLA synthesis and yields with corn, safflower, sunflower, and flax oils with soy oil.
- Comparative oxidative stability.
- Effect of differences in minor oil components on CLA yields.
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HPLC triacylglycerides analysis of CLA-rich soy oil:
We are investigating:
- Fatty acid profiling of CLA rich soybean oil TAG species fractions.
- Characterization of CLA containing triglyceride (TAG) species in photoisomerized high CLA oil by analytical reversed phase-HPLC
system using ELSD and UV detectors. - CLA formation kinetics in each soy oil containing TAG.
- Scale-up of analytical HPLC system to semi-preparative system to facilitate larger sample injections for quantification.
- Concentration of CLA triacylglycerides for nutritional and medical studies.
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CLA rich soy oil oxidation:
Oil oxidation oil causes nutritional loss, undesirable flavors, toxicity, and color deterioration. CLA-rich oil oxidative stability is being investigated to determine shelf life, quality and safety before consumers can enjoy the health benefits of the product. The results of oxidative stability measurements are useful to predict the future quality performance and antioxidants effectiveness. Conventional oxidative stability studies using peroxide values; oxygen uptake, by a head-space oxygen analyzer; volatile compounds by GC-mass spectrometry and visible/UV spectroscopy, are being used.
We are investigating:
- The mode of oxidation of CLA-rich soy oil.
- Oxidative stability of CLA-rich soy oil relative to commercial soy oils.
- Primary lipid oxidation product formation.
- Secondary lipid oxidation product formation.
Effect of minor oil constituents on soy conjugated linoleic acid (CLA):Soybean oil contains various minor constituents, such as tocopherols, phospholipids, carotenoids and free fatty acids are aturally present in crude oil. However, they are removed during de-gumming, alkali refining, bleaching and deodorization oil processing steps. We wish to determine the effect of the presence these oil components on CLA yields rich soy oil.
We are investigating:
- Effects of the presence of tocopherols, phospholipids, free fatty acids and carotenoids on CLA yields in soy oil.
- Effects of minor oil constituents present during UV irradiation on the oxidative stability of CLA-rich soy oil.
- Interactions between the minor soy oil constituents and how they affect soy oil CLA yields.
- Effects of minor oil constituents present during UV irradiation on the oxidative stability of CLA-rich soy oil.
Selected Recent Publications:
- Lall, R., Proctor, A. Jain, V. P. and Lay J.O. 2009. Conjugated linoleic acid-rich soy oil triacylglyceride fraction identification. J. Ag. Food. Chem. 57:1727-1734.
- Lall, R., Proctor, A. and Jain, V.P. 2009. A rapid micro FAME preparation method for vegetable oil fatty acid analysis by gas chromatography. J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc. 86:309-314.
- Jain, V.P., Tokle, T., Kelkar, S. and Proctor A. 2008. Effect of degree of processing on soy oil conjugated linoleic acid yields. J. Ag. Food Chem. 56:8174–8178.
- Gangidi, R. R. and Proctor, A. 2008 . Chapter 8. Meat and Meat products. In: Infrared Spectroscopy for Food Quality Analysis and Control. Ed Da-Wen Sun. Elsevier Press.
- Jain, V. P., Proctor, A.,and Lall R. 2008. Pilot scale production of conjugated linoleic acid-rich soy oil by photo-irradiation. J. Food Sci. 73: E183-192
- R.T. Baublits R.T, Pohlman, F.W., A.H. Brown Jr. Johnson, Z.B. A. Proctor, Sawyer P. and Dias-Morse P. Galloway, D.L. 2007. Injection of conjugated linoleic acid into beef strips. Meat Science 75:84-93.
- Jain, V. and Proctor, A. 2007 Production of conjugated linoleic acid-rich potato chips. J. Food Sci. 72:75-78.
- Jain, V. and Proctor, A. 2007. Kinetics of photoirradiation-induced synthesis of soy oil-conjugated linoleic acid isomers. J. Ag. & Food Chem. 55:889-894.
- Jain, V. and Proctor, A. 2006. Photocatalytic production and processing of conjugated linoleic rich soy oil. J. Ag. & Food Chem.54:5590-5596.
- Gangidi, R.R. and Proctor, A. 2004 Photochemical production of Conjugated linoleic acid from soy oil. Lipids 39:577-582.
Recent Student Research Awards
- 2009 Analytical Division Student Award, American Oil Chemists Society: Rahul Lall, Ph.D. student
- 2008 Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Arkansas Department of Higher Education: Whitney Gammill, BS student
- 2008 Goldwater Award, Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation: Whitney Gammill, BS student
- 2008 First Prize Poster Award. Health and Nutrition Division. American Oil Chemists Society: Whitney Gammill. BS student.
- 2008 Third Prize. Graduate Poster Competition. Gamma Sigma Delta. University of Arkansas: Vishal Jain. Ph.D. student.
- 2007 Honored Student of The American Oil Chemists' Society: Vishal Jain, Ph.D. student.
- 2007 Peter & Claire Kalustian Scholarship of The American Oil Chemists' Society: Vishal Jain, Ph.D. student.
- 2007 Outstanding Ph.D. Student Award, Department of Food Science, University of Arkansas: Vishal Jain, Ph.D student.
For further information contact:
Dr. Andrew ProctorDepartment of Food Science
University of Arkansas
E-mail: aproctor@uark.edu
Tel: 479 575-2980