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Updated: May 27, 2026

Ultrasonic-Assisted Preparation of Biodiesel Products from Vegetable Oils
Published on: April 19, 2024
Comparison and analysis of fatty acids, sterols, and tocopherols in eight vegetable oils
Changmo Li1, Yunping Yao, Guozhong Zhao
1Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, Ministry of Education of China, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin, 300457, China.
Abstract:
The similarities and differences of eight vegetable oils produced in China were investigated in terms of their fatty acid, sterol, and tocopherol compositions and subsequent data processing by hierarchical clustering analysis and principal component analysis. The lipid profiles, acquired by analytical techniques tailored to each lipid class, revealed great similarities among the fatty acid profiles of corn and sesame oil as well as few differences in their sterol profiles. It turns out that not only was there great similarity between the fatty acid profiles of corn oil and sesame oil but also there were not too many differences for the sterol profiles. Sunflower and tea-seed oil showed similar sterol compositions, while the tea-seed oil tocopherol was very similar to palm oil. The results demonstrated that the use of only one of these profiles was unreliable for indentifying oil origin and authenticity. In contrast, the use of the sterol or tocopherol profile together with the fatty acid profile more accurately discriminates these oils.
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