Microwave pretreatment allows accurate fatty acid analysis of small fresh weight (100 g) dried alfalfa, ryegrass, and winter rye samples

This study confirms that FHA drying alone is not adequate for forage sample preservation for FA analysis, and may lead to a significant underestimation of ALA, the principal FA in plants. This distorts measurements of other FA reported on a proportional basis (g 100 g−1 total FA). In conclusion, a simple and inexpensive 1 min microwave pretreatment prior to FHA drying results in FA analysis comparable to freeze-dried samples, provided that samples are of a small fresh weight (100 g).