Normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography of triacylglycerols

Triacylglycerols have been separated by normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on silica utilising a solvent system consisting of dry acetonitrile-half water saturated hexane (0.7:99.3). This solvent system is UV transparent allowing detection at 200 nm and affords a separation in which retention is primarily dependent on the number of constituent double bonds. There is also a slight separation on chainlength, the longer chainlengths being eluted first. The system is therefore complementary to currently used reversed-phase HPLC systems. Chromatograms for some polyunsaturated fats and oils are given, and the most polyunsaturated triacylglycerols from linseed oil are analysed in more detail. Data are given for the separation and quantitation of the pentafluorobenzyl esters of constituent fatty acids from these triacylglycerols by a similar normal-phase HPLC system.