High temperature degradation of fatty acids: mechanistic studies of antioxidant and cyclization

加拿大是脂肪和油(油菜籽、大豆、亚麻、猪油、牛油)的重要生产国，也是工业油炸用脂肪和油的主要使用者。在目前低饱和度、零反式和omega-3营养的背景下，加热脂肪和油比以往任何时候都会在热分解和氧化过程中产生更多的结果，导致降解产物的形成，如环状脂肪酸单体、低聚物(聚合物)、反式和含氧脂肪酸以及挥发性分解分子。虽然降解产物可能会将健康的油脂转化为对人体健康有害的产品，但油脂的热稳定性是食品工业日益关注的经济问题。因此，我们的长期目标是通过更好地了解导致脂肪分子分解的化学反应的机制和动力学，以及非传统的脂类抗氧化剂可以作为不饱和脂肪酸的保护剂，来开发控制高温下(如油炸)脂肪和油的修饰的方法。

Canada is an important producer of fats and oils (Canola, soya, flax, lard, tallow) and a major user of fats and oils for industrial frying. In the present context of low saturates, zero trans and omega-3 nutrition, heating fats and oils results more than ever in thermolytic and oxydative processes leading to the formation of degradation products such as cyclic fatty acid monomers, oligomers (polymers), trans and oxygenated fatty acids, and in volatile breakdown molecules. While the products of degradation may transform healthy oils into products which are harmful to human health, the thermal stability of the oils is a growing economic preoccupation for the food industry. Thus our long term goal is to develop ways to control the modification of fats and oils at high temperatures (as in frying) through a better understanding of the mechanisms and kinetics of the chemical reactions leading to the decomposition of the lipid molecules, and also by which non-traditionnal lipidic antioxidants may act as protective agents for unsaturated fatty acids.