COUPLED LC-GC FOR THE ANALYSIS OF OLIVE OILS

The analysis of the so-called sterol fraction of fats and oils can be strongly improved by the application of on-line coupled LC-GC. LC replaces saponification, the (difficult) extraction of the non-saponifiable and the clean-up by preparative thin layer chromatography. The proposed method eliminates most of the manual sample preparation work, is more accurate, and provides more information at the same time, since the free and esterified components are analyzed separately. Analyzing olive oils, mostly small admixtures of other oils can be detected. For the determination of solvent-extracted oil in "extra virgin" or "pure" olive oils, the method is more suitable than the conventional determination of the triterpenedialcohols erythrodiol and uvaol. Finally pressed oil of first quality ("extra virgin") can be distinguished from that of second quality ("pure" olive oil). Oils of second quality are usually the result of pression with an excessive delay after harvesting the olives.