Analysis of volatile compounds in edible oils using simultaneous distillation-solvent extraction and direct coupling of liquid chromatography with gas chromatography

Identification of volatile compounds in different edible oils (i.e. olive o il, almond oil, hazelnut oil, peanut oil and walnut oil) was performed usin g simultaneous distillation-solvent extraction followed by gas chromatograp hic-mass spectrometric analysis. An alternative approach which allows the d irect injection of the oil sample (i.e. without any kind of pre-treatment) and involves the use of on-line coupled reversed phase liquid chromatograph y-gas chromatography (RPLC-GC) was also considered and the advantages of av oiding off-line preseparation for the analysis of volatile compounds were u nderlined regarding difficulties associated with the lipophilic nature of m ost volatile compounds and, hence, with the reliability of their analysis.