Separation and analysis of phospholipids in different foods with a light-scattering detector

A method for the separation of phospholipids (PL) from total lipids by solid-phase extraction (SPE) with reverse-phase C-8 cartridges is described. The method was validated with a standard mixture of PL and applied to natural food matrixes, such as egg, chicken meat, salami, and ripened cheese. The recovery of PL ranged between 93 and 99.7% and was evaluated by an organic phosphorus spectrophotometric determination. The egg powder PL fraction obtained by SPE contained about 29% (w/w) nonpolar PL material when 100-150 mg of lipids were loaded onto the cartridge. Higher percentages of nonphospholipid components (30-43%) were obtained when the amount of lipids loaded was below or above the 100-150 mg range. The purified PL fractions were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with an evaporative light-scattering detector. Good HPLC performance was observed even with low-purity SPE fractions (43% nonphospholipid material).