Determination of the fatty-acid composition of soybean oil by high-pressure liquid chromatography.

A method for determining the fatty-acid composition of soybean oil by using high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) is discussed and compared with the determination using gas chromatography. The oil is saponified and an aliquot is treated directly to form the p-bromophenacyl esters of the fatty acids, which are separated by gradient-elution HPLC. It is shown that glycerol does not interfere with the esterification, thus obviating the solvent extraction previously used to isolate fatty acids from biological samples.