Purification of dinosterol from complex mixtures of sedimentary lipids for hydrogen isotope analysis

► Two new HPLC methods for purifying dinosterol from other sedimentary alcohols and sterols. ► δD range was 560‰ across a sterol peak during RP-HPLC. ► Average yield 80% for RP-HPLC vs. 60% for two step HPLC method. ► Resolution of dinosterol optimized with a mid-polarity VF-17ms GC column. ► Dinosterol purified via the HPLC methods had reproducible and unbiased δD value.