| abstract |
PCT No. PCT/JP85/00685 Sec. 371 Date Aug. 22, 1986 Sec. 102(e) Date Aug. 22, 1986 PCT Filed Dec. 13, 1985 PCT Pub. No. WO86/04353 PCT Pub. Date Jul. 31, 1986.The invention relates to a procedure of obtaining a lipid mixture rich in the content of gamma -linolenic acid or glycerides thereof from cultured fungus bodies of a filamentous Mortierella fungus. The invention proposes, on one hand, to fractionally extract the lipid mixture from the fungus bodies under mechanical disintegration in two steps first with an alcohol containing water to give a fraction rich in the polar lipids and then with a hydrocarbon solvent, e.g. hexane, to give a fraction lean in the polar lipids. The invention proposes, on the other hand, to enrich a lipid mixture relative to gamma -linolenic acid by fractionally crystallizing a part of a starting lipid mixture in a solution of a specified solvent so that the uncrystallized fraction in the mother liquor contains a lipid mixture in which the content of gamma -linolenic acid is remarkably increased in comparison with the starting lipid mixture. |