ARS | Publication request: THE EVAPORATIVE LIGHT-SCATTERING DETECTOR AS A TOOL FOR THE ANALYSIS OF LIPIDS BY HPLC

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: April 4, 2005
Publication Date: April 4, 2005
Citation: Moreau, R.A. The evaporative light-scattering detector as a tool for the analysis of lipids by hplc. Book Chapter. J-T Lin and T.A. McKeon (eds), in HPLC of Acyl Lipids, H.N.B. Publishing, New York, pp.93-116, 2005.

Technical Abstract: Lipids such as animal fats and vegetable oils are an important part of the diet of humans and animals. In the 1960s and 1970s nutritionists discovered that using gas chromatography one could measure saturated and unsaturated fats in foods and polyunsaturated fats were found to be more healthy than saturated ones. During the 1980s and 1990s some of the minor components in fats and oils, such as tocopherols, tocotrienols, and phytosterols, were found to be health-promoting. New instrumental methods such as high performance liquid chromatography, HPLC, coupled to evaporative light-scattering detectors, ELSDs, were important tools in the research that established the efficacy of these important phytonutrients. This chapter covers important publications that have documented these research activities using this detection technology. ELSDs have also contributed much to our understanding of lipids in humans, other mammals, plants and microbes. ELSD sensitivity and reliability has steadily improved due in part to the healthy competition among manufacturers. Whereas gas chromatography technology reached its maturity at about 1980, and its changes since then have been slow, HPLC technology is still in the process of maturing, and continuing to mature. The ELSD is not a perfect detector for the HPLC of lipids, but it has been and will continue to be extremely valuable.