Conditions of Isolation of Lipids from Yeast

The study of lipid composition of yeast is conditioned by quanti tat ive isolation and perfect fractionation of lipids. A survey of methods for isolation of yeast lipids was written by Hoppe [1]. Lipids are generally extracted with a mixture of organic solvents either directly [2—4] or after previous saponification [5—8]. Harrison and Trevelyan [9] have recently demonstrated tha t some fractions of lipids could be extracted completely only when yeast cells were mechanically disintegrated. The mechanical disintegration of yeast is associated, however, with numerous difficulties. The purpose of this work was therefore to reexamine the conditions of lipid extraction from unbroken yeast cells, and to demonstrate the insufficiency of some known extraction procedures, and to find a simple method for quantitative determination of lipid composition of yeast omitting the mechanical disintegration of cells.