ASSAY OF ANALYTES IN COMPLEX MATRICES - II - DETERMINATION OF FAT-CONTENT IN IV FAT EMULSIONS BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY

Safflower oil and soybean oil which are the major constituents of fat emulsions for intravenous use, are both complex mixtures of triglyceri des. Separation of triglycerides from the other ingredients of IV fat emulsion and their elution together as a single peak have been achieve d through the use of a highly retentive Polymer Reverse Phase (PRP) co lumn in tandem with a strong mobile phase. Quantitation is performed a gainst a standard preparation of soybean oil using refractive index de tection. The procedure is based on the use of the composite response f rom a known amount of one complex mixture of triglycerides to quantita te another complex mixture of triglycerides, which may even differ fro m the former in composition. A validation strategy for this unique sit uation has been developed and implemented.