The occurrence of dihydrophytyl wax esters in bovine rumen liquor.

The purpose of this study was to examine the bovine rumen liquor wax esters and compare them with those of the dietary white clover leaf and stem tissues (Body, D.R. (1974) Phytochemistry 13, 1527-1530). The major fatty acid composition of the total bovine rumen liquor wax esters was made up of saturated fatty acids (62.1%) including palmitic (20.4%), stearic (16.2%) and other acids over the n-C19-n-C30 range (20.5%). However, 13.2% phytanic acid was also present. Of the two major fatty alcohol components, dihydrophytol (33.4%) and triacontanol (20.2%) were the principal contributors. Approximately 30% of the total intact rumen liquor wax esters was a series of dihydrophytyl wax esters. These represented 0.6% of the total rumen liquor lipid extract. Individually they were comprised of dihydrophytyl palmitate (0.05%), dihydrophytyl phytanate (0.10%) and dihydrophytyl n-C18 fatty acids (0.45%). The appearance of saturated isoprenoid moieties was the most striking difference between the composition of rumen liquor and dietary white clover wax esters.