Fatty acid methyl esters

Genevieve Sansoucy <genevieve_sansoucy [at] pch__gc__ca> writes

>I am a chemist working at Canadian Conservation Institute. I have
>been working in the conservation field only for a few months and I
>think you could help me. I am presently analysing fatty acids methyl
>esters (FAME) from oils (linseed, poppyseed, walnut,...) on GC-MS
>and I am trying to get the correct P/S ratio (methyl palmitate and
>methyl stearate). I have no problem with everything but the
>poppyseed oil. The ratio is supposed to be around 5 and I couldn't
>get higher than 3.

Just a thought, but have you tried an alternate supplier of
poppyseed oil? Adulteration of artist's materials has been a problem
since there have been artist's materials.  Maybe you aren't starting
with exactly what you think.

Arlen Heginbotham
Robert Mussey Associates
Boston, MA


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 14:8
                  Distributed: Thursday, July 27, 2000
                        Message Id: cdl-14-8-001
                                  ***