Chlorotrimethylsilane as a reagent for gas chromatographic analysis of fats and oils

Chlorotrimethylsilane can be used as a reagent to transform triglycerides i nto volatile fatty esters. The volatile esters can then be analysed by GC. The results are fully comparable to those obtained by alternative methods u sed worldwide, The new one-step method can transesterify acylglycerides and esterify free fatty acids at the same time. Chlorotrimethylsilane is cheap er than BF3-MeOH and is likely to permit the use of different alcohols. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.