Do you use GC/MS or LC/MS for analysis? How about insect fatty acids? What is the best solvent to extract fats from plants and insects? Do I need to develop different protocols to extract and analyze insect and plant fats?
As mentioned above lipid extraction according to Folch or modified according to Bligh and Dyer (both use CHCl3/MeOH) should work for the extraction of FAs and FA-containing lipids (PL, TAG, ..) of plant and insect homogenates. Subsequently FAs have to be isolated, which can be done by thin layer chromatography or solid phase extraction. For analysis, either transmethylation (FA methylesters) or silylation (FA-Si(CH3)3) of FAs results in FA derivatives, which are useful for GC analysis (MS or other detection systems). In case of (poly-) unsaturated long-chain FAs its crucial to work in the presence of antioxidants to avoid oxidation. Good luck
Godfrey White University of Portsmouth
It is claimed in Lipid Analysis by Christie 2nd ed (Pergamon press) !982 p22 that plant tissues should be first extracted with solvent that inactivates lipases such as isopropanol. I have only dealt with animal tissues using mainly chloroform methanol extraction.
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