Tocopherol, tocotrienol and plant sterol contents of vegetable oils and industrial fats

The tocopherol and tocotrienol (i.e. tocol) and plant sterol contents of 14 vegetable and 9 industrial fats and oils available on the Finnish market in 2005 were determined using NP-HPLC with fluorescence detection (tocols) and GC-FID (plant sterols). Best sources of α-tocopherol were wheat germ (192 mg/100 g) and sunflower oil (59 mg/100 g). Oils richest in γ-tocopherol were camelina (72 mg/100 g), linseed (52 mg/100 g) and organic rapeseed oil (51 mg/100 g). Total tocol contents were between 4.2 mg/100 g (coconut fat) and 268 mg/100 g (wheat germ oil). Plant sterol contents ranged from 69 mg/100 g in a frying fat to 4240 mg/100 g in wheat germ oil. Organic rapeseed oil, the second best source of plant sterols, contained 887 mg/100 g. The variations of the total tocol and sterol contents in 10 rapeseed oil sub-samples analysed separately were 9.7% for tocols and 9.9% for sterols in refined rapeseed oil, and 6.3% for tocols and 4.2% for sterols, respectively, in cold-pressed rapeseed oil. In addition to the target compounds, plastochromanol-8 could be determined in all plant-based samples with contents ranging from 0.13 (walnut oil) to 18 mg/100 g (linseed oil). The lignans sesamin and sesamolin could be identified in sesame oil.