A rapid and reliable direct method for quantifying meat acylglycerides with monomode microwave irradiation.

A rapid methodology for direct analysis of meat acylglycerides is proposed. A transesterification is carried out in a microwave reactor consisting of a monomode oven using chlorotrimethylsilane (CTMS) and methanol. High-temperature gas chromatography was used to check the absence of underivatized acylglycerides. Whereas transesterification is complete after 30s at 90 degrees C in the microwave method, the reference method needs 2h to complete this process. Moreover, the CTMS-microwave method shows higher recoveries of individual saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids. No influence of microwave irradiation on the composition of the fatty acids was observed.