Abstract
Branched-chain fatty acids (BCFAs) play a crucial role in infants’ health. Currently, little information is available for BCFAs enrichment technologies. In this study, an improved method was developed for preparation of free fatty acids from lanolin. Afterwards, BCFAs were concentrated from the prepared free fatty acids by urea complexation. The effect of crystallization solvent, solvent/urea ratio, urea/fatty acid ratio, crystallization temperature and time was investigated. The results suggested that the urea/fatty acid ratio was a critical factor during the enrichment. Under optimal conditions (6:1 ratio of 95% aqueous ethanol/urea, 2:1 ratio of urea/fatty acid, 4 °C for 12 h), content and recovery of the BCFAs from lanolin were 94.69% and 40.02%, respectively. The major BCFAs in the concentrate were anteiso-C15:0, iso-C14:0 and anteiso-C17:0. Surprisingly, the concentrate had a similar BCFA composition and type with human milk fat. Thus, the BCFAs concentrate has the potential to be used in infant formulas.
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