The comparison of solid phase microextraction-GC and static headspace-GC for determination of solvent residues in vegetable oils

Abstract

The objective of these investigations has been the determination of volatile organic compounds including residue solvents present in vegetable oil samples. Some olive oil, rape oil, sunflower oil, soy-bean oil, pumpkin oil, grape oil, rice oil as well as hazel-nut oil samples were analysed. Among residue solvents the following compounds have been mentioned: acetone, n-hexane, benzene, and toluene. Some experiments for the solid phase microextraction (SPME)-GC-flame ionisation detection (FID) were performed to examine extraction conditions such as fiber exposure time, temperature of extraction, and temperature of desorption. Various SPME fibers such as polydimethylsiloxane, Carboxen/ polydimethylsiloxane and polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene coatings were used for the isolation of tested compounds from vegetable oil samples. After optimisation of SPME, real vegetable oil samples were examined using SPME-GC/MS. Based on preliminary experiments the qualitative and quantitative analyses for the determination of acetone, n-hexane, benzene and toluene were performed by SPME-GC-FID and static head-space (SHS)-GC-FID methods. The regression coefficients for calibration curves for the examined compounds were R2 ≥ 0.992. This shows that the used method is linear in the examined concentration range (0.005-0.119 mg/kg for SPME-GC-FID and 0.003-0.728 mg/kg for SHS-GC-FID). Chemical properties of analysed vegetable oils have been characterised by chemometric procedure (cluster analysis). © 2008 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.