Changes Induced in Lipids by Irradiation

From the Summary: A study was made on the effect of gamma and gas plasma irradiation on samples of Wesson Oil, butterfat, and whole dry milk. Under conditions of the experiment reported in this paper it was found that: 1. Intense gas plasma irradiation of 200 M.A. has induced a decrease in the degree of unsaturation of Wesson Oil, while causing an insignificant change in the unsaturation of butterfat and whole dry milk. 2. Gamma irradiation has induced an insignificant change in the degree of unsaturation of the samples, with the exception of whole dry milk, where a significant increase in the degree of unsaturation was observed with increase of the dose. 3. A low intensity gas plasma-treatment of 80 M.A. induced a very insignificant change in the degree of unsaturation of all samples. 4. The primary effects of irradiation on all samples was the formation of free radicals, which produced a significant amount of peroxides that increased proportionally with the dose in gamma irradiation, and upon exposure to air, of the gas plasma irradiated. 5. Gamma irradiation caused increase of the free fatty acids content with dose increase; a decrease with the highest dose used. 6. Gas plasma irradiation, followed hy exposure to atmosphere, caused an increase of the free fatty acids content with increase of intensity of treatment. 7. Some polymerization effected by high dose irradiation, which was insignificant in case of low dose treatment. 8. The two types of irradiation caused but an insignificant change in the refractive index of all samples, with the exception of gas plasma treated butterfat, which was exposed to the atmosphere for longer time after being irradiated. 9. Irradiation of both types used did but very slightly change the nitrogen and protein content. There was only a very slight increase with treatment.