Studies on a Kind of Discoloration of Fish-Oil-VIII

In the present work, the authors have compared the characteristics of oxidized acids isolated from various fish oils having previously been subjected to autoxidation on the one hand, and measured the color intensities exibited by the alcohol-ether (I:2) solution, which had deen prepared by dissolving the oils added with different amounts of ammonia to its definite quantity on the other. The results of these experiments suggest that oxidized acid in general does not contain nitrogen as its molecular constituent. It seems likely that the function of the ammonia partaking in the discoloration of autoxidized fish oil is not to produce ammonium compounds with the oil; but the base behaves mearly as a catalyst. A number of substances apparently different from ammonia, whether inorganic or organic, were also found to play a catalytic action in the discoloration of autoxidized fish oil.