Feed Solutions · Digestion and performance
Acids depend on pH. Monoglycerides do not.
Not weakened by pH
Not weakened by pH like an acid: it stays whole at every gut pH.
Works on membranes
In vitro, it slips into the membrane of Gram-positive bacteria and disturbs it.
Next to your acidifier
It carries on where a rising pH weakens the acid, in the same feed programme.
A monoglyceride is a fatty acid attached to a single position of glycerol. Those of short- and medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA), including monolaurin, have a rare property: their action does not depend on pH. Linkalpha supplies alpha-monolaurin as an MCFA feed additive, in a coated granule, for poultry, pig and aquaculture feed.
The problem
Free organic acids act in their undissociated form: the higher the pH rises along the intestine, the less of them remains in active form. That is the limit of every acidifier, however well chosen.
Medium-chain fatty acid monoglycerides do not follow this rule. Their action does not go through pH but through their structure: a head that likes water, a tail that likes fat. This is why monoglycerides sit next to acidifiers in poultry and pig feed programmes: they complement an action that pH limits.
For acidifying the feed itself: Linkacid.
The principle
Monoglycerides have the structure of a surfactant: that structure, not pH, decides how they behave.
Monolaurin
These are three names for closely related molecules. Monolaurin is the monoglyceride of lauric acid, a twelve-carbon fatty acid classed as medium-chain. Glycerol monolaurate, or GML, is its chemical name: glycerol monolaurate vs monolaurin is a question of vocabulary, not of substance.
The alpha prefix gives the position: the lauric acid is attached at one end of the glycerol, the alpha position, not in the middle, the beta position. Alpha-monolaurin vs monolaurin: the alpha form is the more stable of the two, and it is the form in Linkalpha GML.
Lauric acid is also used in feed as a free fatty acid; its monoglyceride form does not behave the same way. Linkalpha GML supplies alpha-monolaurin in coated form, for poultry and swine.
The grades
Alpha-monolaurin, as a coated granule.
linkalpha
Indicative rate taken from the current technical data sheet. The right rate depends on species, stage and your programme: we set it with you.
Each result comes with its conditions; the full details are available on request.
Publication on the ingredientLinkalpha GML
In vitro, monolaurin is markedly more active than free lauric acid on Gram-positive bacteria (2009 publication).
Trial results available on request.Ask for the trial results →
Gut health
The market files medium-chain fatty acid monoglycerides under gut health additives, for their role in the balance of the digestive flora. What is established is a behaviour measured in vitro on bacterial membranes, and an action that does not depend on pH.
We do not attribute any effect on a disease to them. Their value on your farm is judged on your feed, through a trial, alongside acids and the management of the piglet weaning transition.
Linker products are additives and supplements for feed and drinking water, used within a farm’s programme.
In practice
Fatty acid monoglycerides for animal feed. Their status varies by country: technical data sheet, safety data sheet and status in your country on request.
Digestion and performance
Species, stage, additives already in place and feed form: with these, a technician will suggest a grade and a rate.
Ask about Linkalpha →The monoglyceride of lauric acid: a twelve-carbon fatty acid attached to one position of glycerol. It is also called glycerol monolaurate (GML); the alpha form, the more stable one, is the form in Linkalpha GML.
No, they complement it. An acidifier works through pH; monoglycerides work through their structure, independently of pH. The two combine in the same feed programme.
Linkalpha GML comes as a coated granule, which protects the monolaurin. Its conditions of use, including how it withstands pelleting, are given in its technical data sheet, on request.