DETERMINATION OF STEROLS, ERYTHRODIOL, UVAOL AND ALKANOLS IN OLIVE OILS USING COMBINED SOLID-PHASE EXTRACTION, HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC AND HIGH-RESOLUTION GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHIC TECHNIQUES

A method is described for the determination of the sterol, erythrodiol, uvaol and alkanol content in olive oils by means of solid-phase extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography, instead of liquid-liquid and thin-layer chromatographic separations, the following step being high-resolution gas chromatographic separation. This type of procedure allows the simultaneous analysis of a larger number of samples and a substantial reduction in manual operations. Comparisons were made between the two methods on 100 different olive oils and with a statistical analysis of the results (Student's t-test).