ABSTRACT
Fatty acids from a variety of sources are important not only to the food industry but to such nonfood applications as drying oils in paint, soap, cosmetics, pharma ceuticals, synthetic rubber, and emulsifiers [1]. The degree of unsaturation of the fatty acids has a pronounced influence on their physical properties, such as melt ing point, viscosity, and chemical properties [2]. Among them, oleic acid is one of the main components of human sebum [3]; it bears one double bond in the hydrocarbon chain and, thus, can serve as a model compound for the study of properties and reactions of unsaturated fatty acids [4-11].
