INVESTIGATION ON SOIL LIPID EXTRACTION WITH DIFFERENT ORGANIC-SOLVENTS

Soil lipid content is an important characteristic of the soil organic matter. One of the commonly used extractants for the determination of soil lipid is benzene/ethanol 1:1 (v/v). In this study the toxic solve nt mixture benzene/ethanol was substituted with the less harmful one t oluene/ethanol 1:2,3 (v/v). Both solvent mixtures give a comparably hi gh recovery of soil lipid and the composition of both lipid fractions are very similar according to their thin layer chromatography (TLC). F urther investigations with NMR-spectroscopy confirmed that the extract ed lipid fraction consists mainly (>90%) of structure elements of alip hatic hydrocarbons.