RAPID METHOD FOR THE QUANTITATIVE DETERMINATION OF INDIVIDUAL TOCOPHEROLS IN OILS AND FATS

Abstract

Oils and fats are frozen 2 times from acetone solution at -80.degree. C under protection by ascorbyl palmitate. Tocopherols (T) and tocotrienols (T3) present in the filtered extract are separated into their homologs by 1-dimensional TLC on precoated silica gel plates in the n-hexane/ethyl acetate system 92.5:7.5. Complete separation of the positional isomers .beta.-T and .gamma.-T is also accomplished but .beta.-T3 and .gamma.-T are assumed to form identical bands. Suitable spray- and detection systems including new found coloring ones are described for the qualitative estimation of the chromatograms. The content of individual tocopherols (T and T3) of 24 commercial vegetable oils is quantitatively determined using the Emmerie-Engel procedure.