It has been reported previously that virtually all samples examined of 32 varieties of spices exhibited antioxidant properties in lard, when tested by the active oxygen method (A.O.M.) at 98.6"C. (2). Although most of the spices possessed only weak antioxidant activity, several were shown to be powerful antioxidants. The "carry through" antioxidant activity was also determined in baked pie crusts. Most of the spices were found to be only slightly antioxygenic, 6 were prooxygenic, and 4 prolonged the stability of pie crusts by factors of 2 to 4.5. I n general, however, the effectiveness of spices in protecting baked pie crusts against rancidity was appreciably lower than their ability to protect lard.This was in agreement with the results of others (4, 6) who had found that typical phenolic antioxidants were much less effective in protecting baked goods than in protecting lard. Mattil and Black (7) related the water solubility of an antioxidant to its ability to stabilize the fat in baked goods. Their results indicated that in baked goods where the fat containing the antioxidant is in contact with water, if the solubility of the antioxidant in water is appreciable, it may be extracted from the fat and thus be ineffective. Lehmann and Watts ( 5 ) reported that of five phenolic antioxidants tested in dry lard, and in lard in contact with an aqueous phase, three had approximately the same effectiveness in both substrates while one was more effective in the dry lard and one more effective in the lard-water system.Spices are seldom used in pure fats or in pie crusts. Furthermore, antioxidants used in pie crusts are not only in contact with an aqueous phase, but are also subjected to relatively high temperatures for various lengths of time, a treatment that may well destroy much of the antioxidant. Spices, however, are used in a number of other fat-containing food products in which the fat phase is in intimate contact with an aqueous phase, and many of these products are not subjected to any heat treatment. It was thought desirable, therefore, to study the antioxidant effectiveness of spices in a two-phase aqueous-fat system. Since different spices are used in different foods, it was believed that a simple oil-in-water emulsion would best represent the basic conditions encountered in food products in which the fat is in contact with an aqueous phase. The use of such a substrate would permit the comparative evaluation of all spices in a simple system uncomplicated by the presence of other food components.

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Summary Pure conjugated methylcis‐trans andtrans‐trans octadecadienoates have been prepared and used to develop a method for the determination of these compounds by infrared spectrometry.Cis‐trans compounds alone or in the presence oftrans‐trans conjugation may be determined directly by the absorption at 10.55 μ. In the absence ofcis‐trans isomers conjugatedtrans‐trans octadienoates may be determined directly from the absorption at 10.11 μ. When both types of compounds are present however, a correction must be applied for the contribution of thecis‐trans isomers to the 10.11 μ absorption of thetrans‐trans material.