Oil fractionation as a preliminary step in the characterization of vegetable oils by high-resolution 13C NMR spectroscopy

One hundred nine oil samples were separated chromatographically to obtain oil fractions with a decreased TAG content but with enhanced levels of the minor components that define oil genuineness and quality. The oils, which included virgin olive oils from different cultivars and regions of Europe and north Africa and refined olive, “lampante” olive, refined olive pomace, hazelnut, rapeseed, high-oleic sunflower, corn, grapeseed, soybean, and sunflower oils, were fractionated on a silica gel column with hexane/diethyl ether as the mobile phase eluent. The method was highly reproducible, and the fraction obtained contained about 15% unmodified TAG and 85% polar compounds, which included polymeric TAG, oxidized TAG, DAG, MAG, and FFA, in addition to other minor polar components of the oils. The presence of these compounds, in an enriched fraction, should provide information about the thermal, oxidative, and hydrolytic alterations of the oils, as well as many compounds of interest in determining oil genuineness. The results indicate that these fractions can provide more information than the original oils for NMR or other spectroscopic studies used in the determination of oil quality.