Content of Lipophilic Compounds and HPLC Analysis of Fatty Acid Components in Wine Vinegar

Abstract

We extracted the lipophilic compounds from ten wine vinegars (imported from USA, Italy, France, and Germany) with a mixture of chloroform-methanol, and analyzed their lipid species and component fatty acids by silica gel thin-layer chromatography and reversed phase HPLC. The amount of chloroform-methanol extracts was 1.2 to 3.8 mg/100 ml vinegar. In the wine vinegar samples, the primary lipid classes from the raw material (grape must) were hardly detected, though free fatty acid was usually found. The content of total acyls of four red wine vinegars ranged from 91 to 158 nmol/100 ml, and those of six white wine vinegars from 89 to 352 nmol/100 ml. All the vinegar samples had palmitic acid (25-42%), stearic acid (12-20%), and oleic acid (20-33%) as major fatty acid components. In addition, linoleic acid was one of principal fatty acids in the two samples made in France. Four wine vinegars made in Italy had similar fatty acid profiles. All the wine vinegars were classified into three groups by the fatty acid profiles, but a difference between red and white wine vinegars was not found.