Abstract
Knowledge of the type and level of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids in food and clinical matrices is of practical importance, but the wide variety of fatty acids makes analyses very complex. The discrimination of the geometric isomers of fatty acid needs proper and effective separation conditions. The efficiency of three different stationary phases was evaluated by GC–MS methods in the separation of fatty acids in their methyl ester forms. Significant differences were observed in the efficiencies of polysiloxane-based (non-polar HP-5MS and medium/high polarity DB-225MS) and ionic liquid-based (SLB-IL111) columns. Baseline separation of the geometric isomers of linoleic acid methyl ester was obtained by the extremely polar SLB-IL111 column, showing a preference over the other two columns. The optimization of the experimental conditions (response linearity, limit of detection, limit of quantification, system suitability, intraday and interday repeatability and accuracy) showed the separation power of the ionic liquid interaction in the analyses by using short (25–30 m long) columns. By deducting the general principles of the interaction, predictions can be made for the separation of other isomers. The results facilitate the precise identification of various types of fatty acids in real samples for nutritional information.
Highlights
This study investigates the elution behavior of fatty acid methyl esters with high structural diversity on three capillary columns of different polarities
Fatty acid methyl esters were analyzed by GC–MS as described in the Materials and Methods
The results indicated that theacid non-polar polysiloxane-based of fatty acids of diverse structures in the complex which coul columns were suitable for the separation of saturated and monounsaturatedsamples, fatty acid resolved with the two other columns
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. High-polarity phases are proposed for cis/trans separations and mid-polarity phases for the determination of omega-3 fatty acids, while non-polar columns may eliminate the overlapping of components with different chain lengths. A review has been published by Fanali et al [11], summarizing the application of IL-based columns in GC analyses of FAMEs, and SLB-IL111 was suggested for FAME isomer analyses This extremely polar column has been used to determine the FA composition in milk fat of different origins [5,12,13], in oils (such as linseed oil [14], menhaden fish oil [15] or various edible oils [16]) and fast food samples [17]. This study investigates the elution behavior of fatty acid methyl esters with high structural diversity on three capillary columns of different polarities. Optimal GC–MS methods were developed and validated to obtain the highest efficiency in the separation of the geometric isomers of polyunsaturated fatty acids
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