Determination of Squalene Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Diode Array Detection

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method with photodiode array detection has been developed for the determination of squalene. After treated by extraction and fractional crystallization, squalene was analyzed on a C₁₈ column (150 × 3.9 mm, 5 m) with acetonitrile as mobile phase. Excellent linearity of the calibration curve was observed in the range of 100–40000 gL^–1 and the detection limit was 40 gL^–1. The recoveries were from 89.6% to 100.5% and the relative standard deviations were from 0.5% to 1.4%. The method was successfully applied to the determination of squalene in squalene capsules, olive oil, algal lipids and algal cells.