The vitamin K content of intravenous lipid emulsions

Commercially available intravenous lipid emulsions are largely derived from vegetable oils, a natural source of phylloquinone (vitamin K1). We therefore examined the concentration of vitamin K1 in two widely used intravenous lipid emulsions by using a previously validated high performance liquid chromatography technique. The vitamin K1 concentrations of 10% emulsions of Intralipid and Liposyn II were 30.8 and 13.2 micrograms/dL, respectively. The concentration of vitamin K1 in the 20% emulsions of these products was essentially double that in the 10% emulsions. The coefficients of variation between the vitamin K1 content in three different lots of each product were consistently less than 7.0%. The observed concentrations of the vitamin in these lipid emulsions paralleled the predicted content on the basis of the type of vegetable oil(s) used to make the product. The type of vegetable oil used for production therefore seems to be a major determinant of the final vitamin K1 content. The vitamin K1 contained in these intravenous lipid emulsions is substantial and may have great impact on the vitamin K status of the recipient.