DETERMINATION OF FREE FATTY-ACIDS AND DIACYLGLYCEROLS IN NATIVE VEGETABLE-OILS

The analysis of free fatty acids (FFA) and diacylglycerols (DG) by GLC may be used to detect the deacidification of oils. Free fatty acids a re removed from the oil during neutralization or physical refining, wh ile the corresponding DG remain in the oil. This will change the ratio of FFA to DG. For analysis, oils with tricaprin as internal standard are silylated and injected on-column onto a short high-temperature cap illary column. Extracted oils showed higher amounts of FFA and DG than pressed oils from the same batch of seeds. There are only minor chang es in the ratio of FFA to DG according to the yield of pressing or due to washing the oil.