Identification of Furan Fatty Acids in Nutritional Oils and Fats by Multidimensional GC/MSD

Abstract

App Note 3/1993

ABSTRACT Identification of furan fatty acids as minor components in oils and fats require several pre-analytical separation steps in order to obtain sufficient resolution and sensitivity in single column gas chromatography. After extraction and transesterification hydrogenation, urea complex precipitation and silica gel column chromatography or Ag+-TLC were applied prior to GC analysis. By using a multidimensional GC/MS System with cooled injection and flow controlled column switching with cold trapping in between, the methyl esters of furan fatty acids can be identified directly without any further pre-analytical separations. Butter, milk and ten nutritional oils were investigated. Different transesterification methods were used for the characterization of the oils and compared with each other. Electron impact and chemical ionization were applied to identify the fatty acid methyl esters by GC/MS. Fourteen furan fatty acids were identified in fish oil, two in butter and one in milk. The same furan fatty acid were found in peanut, thistle, sunflower, hazelnut and olive oil, whereas none were detected so far in sesame, corn, walnut or grape seed oil.