Supercritical fluid chromatographic determination of tocopherols on an ODS-silica gel column

Abstract

A method for the supercritical fluid chromatographic (SFC) determination of tocopherots in vegetable oils was investigated using an ODS-silica gel column with carbon dioxide as the mobile phase. The retention of tocopherols was affected by the density of the mobile phase and the addition of methanol as a modifier. The addition of small concentrations of methanol produced a satisfactory separation of tocopherol homologues, including the positional isomers β- and γ-tocopherol. The results of the determination of tocopherols in vegetable oils by SFC were in satisfactory agreement with those obtained by normal-phase HPLC.