Utilisation of reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography as an alternative to silver-ion chromatography for the separation of cis- and trans-C18:1 fatty acid isomers.

Silver ion-high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been commonly used for the separation and the analysis of trans-18:1 isomers in partially hydrogenated oils and milk fat. This paper describes an easy HPLC method using two reversed-phase columns. The cis- and trans-18:1 fatty acids isomers as methyl esters were eluted as two separate fractions. The collected fractions were analysed by gas chromatography (GC). The purity of the two fractions were tested by GC-MS and GC-Fourier transform IR.