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Simultaneous Analysis of Tocopherols, Phytosterols, and Squalene in Vegetable Oils by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

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Abstract

Vegetable oils are a rich source of bioactive substances. The non-saponifiable substances that accompany lipids include tocopherols, sterols, squalene. The aim of this study was to develop a new method for the simultaneous determination of tocopherols (α-, (β+γ)-, and δ-tocopherols), phytosterols (β-sitosterol and stigmasterol), and squalene in vegetable oils. Chromatographic (HPLC) separation was performed within 37 min with a mobile phase of 98:2 (v/v) methanol–water and isopropanol at a flow rate of 1.0 mL min−1 at 30 °C. Detection and quantification were performed at 210 nm. The results showed that the best source of total tocopherols is soybean oil (39.9 mg/100 g), followed by corn oil (36.06 mg/100 g), olive oil (29.42 mg/100 g), and camellia oil (17.72 mg/100 g). The content of plant sterols ranged from 94.96 mg/100 g in camellia oil to 314.15 mg/100 g in corn oil. Soybean oil and olive oil contained 164.14 and 127.80 mg/100 g, respectively. The content of squalene in corn oil was a mean of 256.84 mg/100 g, while there was only a weakly significant difference between camellia oil (159.76 mg/100 g) and olive oil (162.41 mg/100 g). The content of squalene in soybean oil was 92.07 mg/100 g. The results indicated that the method could be used for the simultaneous analysis of phytosterols, tocopherols, and squalene in vegetable oils.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the financial support of the open foundation of the Collaborative Innovation Center of Modern Bio-manufacture, Anhui University (No. JZ2016QTGX0811).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Education, Engineering Research Center of Bio-process (Hefei University of Technology), Hefei, Anhui, 230009, People’s Republic of China

    Chuanxun Yuan, Yangyang Xie, Risheng Jin, Lili Ren, Lei Zhou, Min Zhu & Yujie Ju

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  1. Chuanxun Yuan
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  2. Yangyang Xie
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  3. Risheng Jin
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  4. Lili Ren
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  5. Lei Zhou
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  6. Min Zhu
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  7. Yujie Ju
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Risheng Jin.

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Funding

This study was funded by No. JZ2016QTGX0811.

Conflict of Interest

Chuanxun Yuan declares that he has no conflict of interest. Yangyang Xie declares that he has no conflict of interest. Risheng Jin declares that he has no conflict of interest. Lili Ren declares that he has no conflict of interest. Lei Zhou declares that he has no conflict of interest. Min Zhu declares that he has no conflict of interest. Yujie Ju declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Yuan, C., Xie, Y., Jin, R. et al. Simultaneous Analysis of Tocopherols, Phytosterols, and Squalene in Vegetable Oils by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography. Food Anal. Methods 10, 3716–3722 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-017-0927-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-017-0927-x

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