Elucidation of triacylglycerols in cod liver oil by liquid chromatography electrospray tandem ion-trap mass spectrometry.

Though liquid chromatography electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS(2)) has been widely used in the structural elucidation of triacylglycerols (TAG) in vegetable oils, its potentiality for the identification of TAG molecules in omega-3 rich oils remains unexplored till date. Hence, this article investigates the applicability of LC-ESI-MS(2) for the structural characterization of naturally occurring TAG in cod liver oil without the TAG fractionation during the sample preparation. A computational algorithm was developed to automatically interpret the mass spectra and elucidate the TAG structures respectively. The results were compared against the lipase benchmark method. A principal component analysis study revealed that it is possible to discriminate genuine from adulterated cod liver oil. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.