A simple and rapid colorimetric method for determination of free fatty acids for lipase assay

Abstract A simple and rapid colorimetric method was developed to determine the lipase activity for fat splitting. Free fatty acids produced by lipase from triacylglycerols were determined by observing the color developed using cupric acetate‐pyridine as a color developing reagent. This modified method requires only a few minutes to determine the free fatty acids, whereas it takes over 20 min by the conventional methods which require solvent evaporation and centrifugation steps. The sensitivity and reproducibility of the method were good for caproic, caprylic, capric, lauric, myristic, palmitic, stearic and oleic acids.