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 a-tocopherol were wheat germ (192mg/100g) and sunflower oil (59mg/100g). Oils richest in gamma-tocopherol were camelina (72mg/100g), linseed (52mg/100g) and organic rapeseed oil (51 mg/100g). Total tocol contents were between 4.2mg/100g (coconut fat) and 268mg/100g (wheat germ oil). Plant sterol contents ranged from 69mg/100g in a frying fat to 4240mg/100g in wheat germ oil. Organic rapeseed oil, the second best source of plant sterols, contained 887mg/100g. 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. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.