The separation of viscera lipids of fin whale, Balaenoptera physalus, was made by column chromatography with activated silicic acid. The chromatography was carried out by the use of solvent system I (Table 1), and the chromatogram is shown in Fig. 1. The lipid components were analyzed by chemical tests, infrared absorpion spectroscopic method, and thin layer chromatography (Figs. 2 and 3). The composition of the viscera lipids was the following: cholesterol ester and etc. 0.3%, triglyceride 82.5%, free fatty acid 4.2%, cholesterol 1.7%, diglyceride 4.5%, monoglyceride 3.7%, and polar lipids 3.1% (Table 2). The chromatogram was highly reproducible and the recovery was almost quantitative.
For the polar lipids, eluted with methanol after the neutral lipids, rechromatography was carried out by the use of solvent system II (Table 1), and the chromatogram is shown in Fig. 4. The polar lipids were extremely complicated. From the quantitative analysis of phosphorous, it was expected that phospholipid contents were 4.7 per cents of the polar lipids, but any of phospholipids were not identified. Judging from the results obtained by infrared absorption spectroscopic method and thin layer chromatography, oxidized glycerides were eluted in overall the fractions of methanol in chloroform (Figs. 5 and 6).