DEVELOPMENT OF STARTING MATERIAL WITH ENH ANCED ALPHA-TOCOPHEROL OR GAMMA-TOCOPHEROL CONTENTS IN THE SEED OIL FOR THE BREEDING OF NEW RAPESEED CULTIVARS

As a presupposition for the selection of rapeseed genotypes with high or low contents of alpha- and gamma-tocopherols resp. by plant breedin g we have investigated wether the High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) or the Gas Chromatography (GLC) is the more suitable analytical method. The HPLC has the advantage that diluted rapeseed oils may be analyzed without any other sample preparation so far as fluorescence H PLC monitors are used, which in addition possess a thousandfold higher sensitivity than flame ionization detectors. For the HPLC we determin ed the optimal separation conditions and for the fluorescence monitor we ascertained the best operation conditions. As Internal Standard we used beta-tocopherol and on basis of this compound we calculated the r esponse factors for alpha-, gamma-, and delta-tocopherol.