Digestive behavior of unemulsified triglycerides with different chain lengths: In vitro dynamic and static simulated digestion models

Glyceryl tributyrate (GTB), glyceryl tridodecanoate (GTD) and glycerol tripalmitate (GTP) are typically short, medium and long-chain fatty acid glycerides, respectively. Their digestion behaviors play decisive roles in their health benefits. In this study, the digestion behaviors of unemulsified GTB, GTD and GTP were compared in the dynamic simulation digestion model (artificial gastric digestive system and semi-dynamic intestinal digestive system) and static simulation digestion model. In these two models, the digestibility is GTB > GTD > GTP. In the gastric phase, 4.5%–24.5% of triglycerides were hydrolyzed, and this phenomenon was more obvious in the dynamic model. In addition, the transition of digestive behaviors from the stomach to the intestine was smoother in the dynamic model. The particle size of GTB is usually smaller than those of GTD and GTP, and this difference was weakened in the dynamic model. The high melting point of GTD and GTP also hindered their binding with digestive enzymes in digestion. Our research filled the gaps in the study of the digestion behaviors of unemulsified triglycerides with different chain lengths in different models. • The role of gastric lipase can't be ignored, it hydrolyzes 4.5%–24.5% of triglycerides. • Digestibility: butyric triglyceride > lauric triglyceride > palmitic triglyceride. • Dynamic digestion can form smaller chyle particles than static digestion. • The digestive behavior of glyceryl laurate was closer to that of palmitic triglyceride.