A single step solid-phase extraction method for complete separation of sterol oxidation products in food lipids

One of the crucial steps in determination of sterol oxidation products (SOPs) in foods is their enrichment and purifications by various preparative methods for further analysis by GC and GC–MS. Among the preparative methods, SPE of various adsorbents and solvent systems, are being used most widely. At present, no single step SPE method is suitable to completely separate the SOPs. In this study, a SPE (1 g silica) method, suitable for both transesterified and cold saponified oil samples, was developed to separate completely SOPs from other lipid components. This method resulted in high recovery from rapeseed oil of added 5β,6β-epoxycholestan-3β-ol (94-96%), cholest-5-en-3β-ol-7-one(94%), cholestane-3β,5α,6β-triol (88–91%), cholest-5-en-3β,7α-diol and 5α,6α-epoxycholestan-3β-ol (88–90%). The method has a high sample capacity of up to 1 g transesterified or cold-saponified oil sample. The method was tested and applied to different vegetable oils and to monitor the effects of refining processes on POPs in hazelnut oil.