Highly concentrated very long-chain PUFA obtainment by Urea complexation methodology

Abstract The intake of n-3 very long chain PUFA (VLCPUFA) develops several positive physiological actions. Thus, such compounds are currently used as healthy supplements for animals and humans, in animal experimentation, and as standards for chromatographic use. The urea complexation methodology is an old technique for obtaining PUFA concentrates; however, improvements can still be implemented for improving results using this methodology. In this work, highly concentrated eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5n-3), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) and arachidonic acid (ARA, 20:4n-6) have been successfully obtained using such procedure. For this, five oil sources were used: commercially available tuna oil, DHASCO®, ARASCO®, and MARINOL®, and the oil from the microalga Nannochloropsis. Overall, after optimizing the urea:fatty acid ratio, DHA-, EPA-, and ARA-concentrates were obtained at 98.0, 43.0 and 82.8% of total fatty acids. This work clearly shows the importance of the proper selection of the oil source to achieve highly-purity VLCPUFA concentrates by the urea complexation method.