Evaluation of a rapid method for preparation of fatty acid methyl esters for analysis by gas-liquid chromatography

The major limitation to fatty acid analysis by gas-liquid chromatography is associated with preparation of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). In the present study, FAME preparations were made from plant oils (corn, olive, sunflower), sunflower oil margarine, lard and various animal tissue fats by a rapid transesterification involving tetramethylammonium hydroxide in methanol, and also by a longer conventional saponification-esterification method. Fats from animal (beef, mutton, pork) adipose tissues were extracted by a simpler modified procedure and also by the Folch method prior to the rapid and the conventional FAME preparations, respectively. FAME analysis on a gas-liquid chromatograph equipped with a Silar 10C glass capillary column indicated similar fatty acid composition of a given fat or oil, whether FAME was prepared by the rapid or the longer conventional method. The data obtained by both methods were very highly correlated for all the fats (r = 0.9895 - 0.9999). However, the rapid method showed a tendency for enhanced recoveries of lower chain fatty acids (e.g. 14:0), and also of unsaturated C18 isomers. Possibly, losses of fatty acids that occurred during the lengthy fat extraction, fatty acid esterification or ether-evaporation FAME concentration steps (conventional method) were minimised by the single transesterification step (rapid method). This rapid transesterification method appears to be an attractive alternative to FAME preparation from a wide variety of different fats for gas-liquid chromatographic analysis.