Antioxidant and Cyclooxygenase Activities of Fatty Acids Found in Food

Several commercially available C-8 to C-24 saturated and unsaturated fatty acids (1−29) were assayed for cyclooxygenase-I (COX-I) and cyclooxygenase-II (COX-II) inhibitory and antioxidant activities. Among the saturated fatty acids tested at 60 μg mL-1, there was an increase in antioxidant activity with increasing chain length from octanoic acid to myristic acid (C-8−C-14) and a decrease thereafter. All unsaturated fatty acids tested at 60 μg mL-1 showed good antioxidant activity except for undecylenic acid (12), cis-5-dodecenoic acid (13), and nervonic acid (29). The highest inhibitory activities among the saturated fatty acids tested on cyclooxygenase enzymes COX-I and COX-II were observed for decanoic acid to lauric acid (3−5) at 100 μg mL-1. Similarly, among the unsaturated fatty acids tested, the highest activities were observed for cis-8,11,14-eicosatrienoic acid (25) and cis-13,16-docosadienoic acid (27) at 100 μg mL-1. Keywords: Fatty acids; antioxidant; cyclooxygenase; antiinflammatory; saturated; unsaturated