| abstract |
Procedure of obtaining a lipid mixture rich in the content of gamma-linolenic acid or glycerides thereof from a 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 staring 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. |