Enantioseparation and optical rotation of flavor-relevant 4-alkyl-branched fatty acids

•4-Alkylbranched fatty acids were enantioselectively esterified with lipase B.•Enantioenriched (R)-4-Et-8:0 and enantiopure (R)-4-Me-8:0/-9:0 were obtained.•[α]D of free (R)-4-Et-8:0 was determined to be +0.86° (extrapolated from ee = 0.84).•Enantioseparation of 4-Et-8:0, 4-Me-8:0 and 4-Me-9:0 was studied on three CSPs.•4-Me-8:0 was resolved as (−)-menthyl ester on SLB-IL 59 and R-enantiopure in goat.

Short chain 4-alkyl-branched fatty acids are character impact compounds of the flavor of sheep and goat milk and meat. Due to their methyl or ethyl branches these volatile fatty acids are chiral, and both enantiomers are characterized by different aroma intensities. Recently, it was found that 4-methyloctanoic acid (4-Me-8:0), 4-ethyloctanoic acid (4-Et-8:0), and 4-methylnonanoic acid (4-Me-9:0) are enantiopure in goat and sheep samples, if present. Here we generated enantiopure or enantioenriched standards from racemates by means of (R)-selective esterification with lipase B and verified that 4-Me-8:0, 4-Et-8:0 and 4-Me-9:0 were (R)-enantiopure in these tissues. Determination of the optical rotation and [α]D value was carried out to show that (R)-4-Et-8:0 is dextrorotary and to verify the literature values of (R)-4-methyl-branched fatty acids. The elution order of free acids and the methyl and ethyl esters of 4-Me-8:0, 4-Et-8:0, 4-Me-9:0 and 4-methylhexanoic acid (4-Me-6:0) enantiomers was investigated on different chiral columns as well as the (−)-menthyl ester by indirect enantiomer separation on an ionic liquid phase. Different chiral recognition processes were suggested for free acid and esters of 4-Me-8:0 and 4-Me-9:0 on the one hand (decisive: 4-alkyl branch) compared to 4-Me-6:0 on the other hand (decisive: branch on antepenultimate carbon).