Simultaneous analysis of tert-butylhydroquinone, tert-butylquinone, butylated hydroxytoluene, 2-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyanisole, 3-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyanisole, α-tocopherol, γ-tocopherol, and δ-tocopherol in edible oils by normal-phase high performance liq

•The NP-HPLC method can simultaneously detect TBHQ, TQ, BHT, 2(3)-BHA, and α(γ, δ)-VE.•The NP-HPLC method avoids the reduction of TQ caused by RP-HPLC during the injection.•The two isomers of BHA (2-BHA and 3-BHA) can be separated with the NP-HPLC method.

A normal-phase high performance liquid chromatography method for the simultaneous determination of tert-butylhydroquinone, tert-butylquinone, butylated hydroxytoluene, 2-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyanisole, 3-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyanisole, α-tocopherol, γ-tocopherol, and δ-tocopherol in edible oils was investigated. A silica column was used to separate the analytes with the gradient elution. An ultraviolet-visible detector was set at dual wavelengths mode (280 and 310 nm). The column temperature was 30 °C. The analytes were directly extracted with methanol. Results showed that the normal-phase high performance liquid chromatography method performed well with wide liner ranges (0.10 ∼ 500.00 μg/mL, R2 > 0.9998), low limits of detection and quantitation (below 0.40 and 1.21 μg/mL, respectively), and good recoveries (81.38 ∼ 102.34% in soybean oils and 83.03 ∼ 100.79% in lard, respectively). The reduction of tert-butylquinone caused by the reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography during the injection was avoided with the current normal-phase method. The two isomers of butylated hydroxyanisole can also be separated with good resolution.