Simultaneous determination of free fatty acids, partial acylglycerols and tocols in palm oil products using high-performance liquid chromatography

A high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method is described for th e simultaneous separation of lipid classes and vitamin E isomers. The detec tion of both groups was made possible by using an evaporation light scatter ing detector and a fluorescence detector connected in series. Separation of partial acylglycerols and free fatty acids was satisfactory. In addition, five major vitamin E isomers in palm oil, namely alpha -tocopherol, alpha-, beta-, gamma- and delta -tocotrienols were also resolved. The accuracy of the method, in terms of partial acylglycerols and free fatty acid, was in a greement with the result obtained from the gas chromatographic method. The mean recovery of alpha -tocopherol on spiked tripalmitin was 95.2%.