Quantitation and structure elucidation of the positional isomers in a triacylglycerol mixture using proton and carbon one- and two-dimensional NMR

An interesterified triacylglycerol mixture prepared from triacetylglycerol/tripropionylglycerol/hydrogenated canola oil was quantitatively characterized using 1 H and 13 C NMR experiments. Resonance assignments were facilitated by the combination of 1 H- 1 H and 1 H- 13 C two-dimensional NMR experiments, and species present at 1 mol% or greater were identified. Because of the multiplicity of triacylglycerol species present in the mixture, it was necessary to perform experiments in mixtures of perdeuteriobenzene and deuteriochloroform to resolve overlapping resonances. The isomer distribution determined by NMR is consistent with random interesterification of the reaction mixture