Tocopherol Contents of Pakistani Seed Oils Studied by Normal Phase HPLC

A high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was developed for the quantitative determination of tocopherol vitamers (, T and ) in different seed oils. After saponification the oil samples and extracts in n-hexane, tocopherol vitamers were quantitatively analyzed by HPLC with fluorimetric detector. Assay of tocopherol vitamers added to margarine resulted in •97% recovery, showing high precision of the method. The tocopherol vitamers were eluted isocratically by an eluent containing 95% hexane, 5% diethyl ether, at a pump flow rate of 1.5 ml/min. A silica column (Si-60) with a temperature of 45°C was used. The method developed in this investigation enables better separation of the tocopherol vitamers and their quantitative analysis in seed oils.