Elucidation of fatty acid profiles in vegetable oils exploiting group‐type patterning and enhanced sensitivity of comprehensive two‐dimensional gas chromatography

Abstract

The present research is focused on the use of comprehensive 2‐D GC (GC×GC) for the thorough elucidation of fatty acid (FA) profiles contained in vegetable oils; the samples analysed consisted of extra‐virgin olive oil and refined hazelnut oil. The enhanced sensitivity and the formation of group‐type patterns provided by GC×GC enabled the identification and quantification of both well‐known and rather unexpected FAs contained in the lipid matrices. Peak assignment was, in most cases, supported by using pure standard compounds. Of particular interest was the identification of a series of odd‐numbered FAs in both samples. The results attained to demonstrate the usefulness of GC×GC also for the analysis of supposedly low‐complex samples.