Determination of Phenolic Anti-Oxidants in Edible Oil by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Amperometric Detector

Abstract

A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with amperometric detection was investigated for the analysis of 2-and 3-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyanisole (BHA), 3,5-di-tert?butyl-4-hydroxytoluene (BHT), and tert?butyl-hydroquinone (TBHQ) in edible oil. The reversed-phase system developed was combined with an amperometric detector, the working electrode of which was made of glassy carbon, in order to compare the sensitivity and selectivity of ultraviolet and fluorometric detection. For the amperometric detection of HPLC, cyclic voltammetry was used to monitor the electrochemical properties of the phenolic antioxidants. A simple isolation procedure, based on the continuous liquid-liquid partition technique, was examined for the extraction and clean up of the antioxidants from edible oil. The recovery rates of BHA, BHT, and TBHQ added salad oil were between 90.2-107.7% in the range of 1-50 ppm of the antioxidants. By the present method, BHA, BHT, and TBHQ were well separated, identified and quantitated with a high sensitivity.