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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #117395
Title: TRIACYLGLYCEROL ANALYSIS OF VEGETABLE OILS BY HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY WITH ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE CHEMICAL IONIZATION MASS SPECTROMETRY

Author
item Neff, William
item BYRDWELL, W - FL ATLANTIC U,BOCA RATON
item List, Gary

Submitted to: Cereal Foods World
Publication Type: Popular Publication
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/6/2000
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Amounts and types of the components called triglycerides of the fat portion of food formulation products are important. The triglycerides of the fat portion have an important effect on melting range, stability and texture of the finished food product. Also, the triglycerides are important for nutritional and health value. We presented, in this work, a technique to learn about the amounts and types of these triglycerides. This technique is called high-performance liquid chromatography, which separates the different triglycerides based on the length and unsaturation of the fatty acids they contain. After separation, the amounts and identities of the triglycerides can be determined as they are passed through a detector called a quadrupole mass spectrometer equipped with a device called an atmospheric chemical ionization source. This is a new method, which accurately determines the triglyceride composition of fats. This work will benefit food processors, since a triglyceride survey and quality control method is described, which will speed up development of fat containing products with desired properties such as melting, texture and mouth feel. This work, which will also benefit the consumer, is a development from research, conducted in the food formulation project, which determines relationship of glyceride structure and quality/functionality of modified vegetable oils.

Technical Abstract: We report a new methodology for the determination of the identification and amounts of individual triglycerides or triacylglycerols in vegetable oils such as a non linolenic acid oil such as corn and a linolenic acid oil such as soybean. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of the triacylglycerol composition is determined by reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography coupled with a quadrupole mass spectrometer with an atmospheric pressure chemical ionization source. Accuracy of the identification and quantitation of the oils was proven by the following two procedures. The fatty acid compositions of the oils calculated from the mass spectrometric triacylglycerol data, after application of response factors, exhibited low average errors with respect to the experimental fatty acid compositions obtained by calibrated gas chromatography. Triacylglycerol percent composition results for samples of known triacylglycerol composition (the randomized oils) exhibited low average errors.