2,6,10,14-Tetramethylpentadecanoic Acid, a Constituent of Butterfat

IN earlier work in this laboratory, on the trace and minor fatty acid constituents of butterfat, a C20 multi-branched chain fatty acid was isolated1,2 which possessod physical and chemical properties corresponding with an acid afterwards isolated and conclusively identified by Bjurstam et al.3 and by Sonneveld et al.4 as 3,7,11,14-tetramethylhexadecanoic acid. Continued investigations on the fatty acid constituents of New Zealand butterfat have now resulted in the isolation in trace amounts of a homologous C19 saturated fatty acid with similar properties and with four side-chain methyl groups. Examination of this fatty acid by techniques which included mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance, infrared spectrometry and gas-liquid chromatography has led to this previously unreported constituent being identified as 2,6,10,14-tetramothylpentadecanoic acid.