Fatty Acid Composition of Sheep Tail‐Fats from Five Iranian Native Breeds

Abstract

AbstractFifteen fat samples provided from 5 sheep of 5 different Iranian native breeds were examined for their fatty acid composition by means of gaschromatography. Over 30 components could be detected in most samples. Fifteen fatty acids occurred in measurable amounts commonly higher than 0.1% up to 53.5% of the total. The saturated part consisted for the major of myristic (2.4–5.5%), pentadecanoic, (0.6–1.0%), palmitic (18.2–23.6%), heptadecanoic (0.9–2.3%), stearic (7.1–22.1%) and arachidic (0.1–0.3%) acids. Myristoleic (0.3–2.1%), palmitoleic (1.4–3.6%), oleic (39.6–53.5%), linoleic (2.1–3.7%) and linolenic (2.2–2.9%) acids were the main unsaturated fatty acids identified in this investigation. The differences in fatty acid composition of fats from sheep of various breeds were considerably high in stearic and oleic acids in some cases. The variation in fatty acid composition of fat samples obtained from different parts of a tail was insignificant in all 5 sheep examined. No conclusion could be made as to whether the above mentioned considerable differences in fatty acid composition of tail fats from various sheep are due to difference in their breed or due to other factors.