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• Big game cervids are excellent natural sources of plasmalogens. • The lipid profile is distinctive for moose and caribou skeletal muscle tissues. • Cervid meat or antlers could be used as potential ingredients in plasmalogen supplements. • Alternative uses as natural sources of plasmalogen. Plasmalogen deficiency is associated with increased risks for diabetes mellitus, cancer, cardiac and respiratory diseases, and more recently Alzheimer's disease (AD). Diet remains one of the most important sources of plasmalogen for humans. There is increasing interest in finding unique natural sources of plasmalogen to be used in the development of functional foods, as well as to improve plasmalogen intake during normal food consumption. Big game cervids meat is gaining popularity as a superior source of protein with enhanced levels of functional lipids. Herein, we show that moose (Alces alces) and caribou (Rangifer tarandus) contain high levels of plasmalogens in their polar lipid composition, e.g., 50–59 % of plasmalogen phosphatidylcholine (pPC) and 56–61 % plasmalogen phosphatidylethanolamine (pPE). Caribou was found to be rich in plasmalogen pPC content (59 %), while moose was dominant in plasmalogen pPE content (61 %). Moose meat is characterized by having ten-folds higher concentration of lyso-plasmalogen pLPE at 417 ± 55 μg/g as compared to 42 ± 4 μg/g and 36 ± 7 μg/g in caribou meat and moose antler, respectively. The phospholipid composition with high plasmalogen content reported in caribou and moose meat/antler suggests that they may serve as natural dietary sources of plasmalogens during normal food consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fatty acid esters of hydroxy fatty acids (FAHFA), diglycerides (DG) and monoacetyldiglycerides (MAcDG) are gaining interest as functional lipids in pharmaceuticals and functional food formulations for managing and treating metabolic or inflammatory diseases. Herein, we investigated whether the antler and/or meat of two Cervids (moose and caribou) are novel sources of FAHFA, DG and MAcDG. We observed FAHFA present in moose and caribou composed mainly of polyunsaturated families, and that the esterification occurred frequently at the C5-hydroxy fatty acid moiety, most noticeably arachidonic acid 5-hydroxyeicosatrienoic acid (ARA-5-HERA). Moose antler, caribou and moose meat also contained significant levels of both 1,2-DG and 1,3-DG lipids. The 1,3-DG molecular species consisted mainly of 16:0/18:1, 18:0/16:0, and 18:0/18:1. On the other hand, major 1,2-DG species consisted of DG 18:0/18:0, 16:0/16:0 and 18:1/18:1 molecular species with higher levels in the antler compared to the meat. The molecular species composition of MAcDG was very simple and consisted of 14:2/18:2/2:0, 16:0/18:2/2:0, 16:0/18:1/2:0 and 18:0/18:1/2:0 with the first species 14:2/18:2/2:0 predominating in the tip of moose antlers. Increasing access to and knowledge of the presence of these functional lipids in foods will enhance their intake in the diet with potential implications in improving personal and population health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]