Quantitative determination of faecal fatty acids and triglycerides by Fourier transform infrared analysis with a sodium chloride transmission flow cell.

We studied the applicability of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to determine the amount of faecal fatty acids and triglycerides in faeces. For this, we have optimised a simple hexane extraction procedure of stool. After extraction, an aliquot of the hexane layer is directly injected into the measurement cell of the spectrophotometer and absorbance at 1714 cm(-1) and 1751 cm(-1) is read for quantitation of fatty acids and triglycerides, respectively.