Simultaneous liquid chromatographic determination of cholesterol, phytosterols and tocopherols in foods.

A method is described for the simultaneous determination of cholesterol, phytosterols and tocopherols in dairy and non-dairy high-performance liquid chromatography. A facile saponification and extraction scheme is completed rapidly within a single reaction tube. Clean-up is not required, with analysis completed by one of two alternative reversed-phase approaches. Sterols are monitored by short-wave ultraviolet spectrophotometry, and tocopherols by means of a series fluorescence detector. Cholesterol is resolved from the principal plant phytosterols, while the tocopherol congeners are well separated, thereby offering complementary information regarding source-lipid composition in foods under regulatory quality-control conditions. Squalene, an essential metabolic sterol precursor, can also be determined concurrently at the same viewing wavelength.