The oxidation processes of linoleic acid (LA) in the presence of L-ascorbic acid or saturated acyl L-ascorbate additives were measured at various temperatures and molar ratios of the additive to LA. Higher oxidative stability of LA was observed at higher additive levels for all additives. The addition of the ascorbates lengthened the induction period for the oxidation of LA. An autocatalytic kinetic rate equation was used to model the oxidation processes of LA mixed with the ascorbates, and the dependence of the rate constant, k, on acyl-chain carbon number was determined. At any temperature, the use of ascorbate additives decreased the k value for LA, and there was a slight tendency for k values to decrease with increasing acyl-chain length. The apparent activation energy, E a , and the frequency factor, k 0 , for the rate constant were determined from Arrhenius plots. The calculated E a and k 0 values also decreased with increasing ascorbate acyl-chain length.Paper no. J10440 in JAOCS 82, 389-392 (May 2005).KEY WORDS: Apparent activation energy, autocatalytic-type kinetics, frequency factor, rate constant, saturated acyl L-ascorbate.Lipid oxidation in foods causes rancidity and nutritional deterioration. Oxidation is a complicated process including the steps of initiation, propagation, and termination. The kinetics of the oxidation in a bulk lipid have been extensively studied (1-3), and the entire lipid oxidation process has been described by a kinetic expression of the autocatalytic type in terms of the fraction of unoxidized substrate (2). In previous studies, we also applied the expression to the entire oxidation process of n-6 FFA, their esters, and acylglycerols, and we evaluated their kinetic parameters (4-6). L-Ascorbic acid is a hydrophilic vitamin with high reducing activity due to its enediol-lactone resonant structure; it is widely used as an additive in foods and cosmetics. Its lipophilic derivatives with long acyl chains such as 6-O-palmitoyl and 6-O-stearoyl L-ascorbates are also used as an additive in foods rich in lipids. Recently, some studies have appeared on the lipase-catalyzed synthesis of acyl ascorbates in an organic solvent (7,8). We also synthesized various 6-O-acyl ascorbates by using an immobilized lipase and reported their antioxidative abilities (9-12). Although there have been some studies of the antioxidative ability of palmitoyl ascorbate for the oxidation of oils (13-17), the application of the acyl ascorbates with medium chain lengths has not been reported.In this study, we analyzed the oxidation processes of linoleic acid (LA) in the presence of L-ascorbic acid or saturated acyl L-ascorbate by applying a kinetic equation of the autocatalytic type to the processes. The dependence of the rate constant on the acyl-chain carbon number of the ascorbates at various temperatures was investigated. Furthermore, the apparent activation energy, E a , and the frequency factor, k 0 , for the rate constant were determined, and the effects of the carbon number on them were demonstrated.
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