Rapid determination of sterols in vegetable oils by CEC using methacrylate ester-based monolithic columns

A method for the determination of sterols in vegetable oils by CEC with UV-Vis detection, using methacrylate ester-based monolithic columns, has been developed. To prepare the columns, polymerization mixtures containing monomers of different hydrophobicities were tried. The influence of composition of polymerization mixture was optimized in terms of porogenic solvent, monomers/porogens and monomer/crosslinker ratios. The composition of the mobile phase was also studied. The optimum monolith was obtained with lauryl methacrylate monomer at 60:40% (wt:wt) lauryl methacrylate/ethylene dimethacrylate ratio and 60 wt% porogens with 20 wt% of 1,4-butanediol (12 wt% 1,4-butanediol in the polymerization mixture). Excellent resolution between sterols was achieved in less than 7 min with an 85:10:5 v/v/v ACN-2-propanol-water buffer containing 5 mM Tris at pH 8.0. The limits of detection were lower than 0.04 mM, and inter-day and column-to-column reproducibilities at 0.75 mM were better than 6.2%. The method was applied to the determination of sterols in vegetable oils with different botanical origins and to detect olive oil adulteration with sunflower and soybean oils.