Analysis of volatile compounds in edible oils using simultaneous distillation-solvent extraction and direct coupling of liquid chromatography with gas chromatography

Identification of volatile compounds in different edible oils (i.e. olive oil, almond oil, hazelnut oil, peanut oil and walnut oil) was performed using simultaneous distillation-solvent extraction followed by gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analysis. An alternative approach which allows the direct injection of the oil sample (i.e. without any kind of pre-treatment) and involves the use of on-line coupled reversed phase liquid chromatography-gas chromatography (RPLC-GC) was also considered and the advantages of avoiding off-line preseparation for the analysis of volatile compounds were underlined regarding difficulties associated with the lipophilic nature of most volatile compounds and, hence, with the reliability of their analysis.