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Deep eutectic solvent-based liquid-phase microextraction coupled with reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography for determination of α-, β-, γ-, and δ-tocopherol in edible oils

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Abstract

For simultaneous analysis of four fat-soluble tocopherols (α-, β-, γ-, and δ-) in edible oils, an efficient and green method using deep eutectic solvent-based liquid-phase microextraction (DES-LPME) coupled with reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) was developed. The DESs formed by different quaternary ammonium salts and ethanol were used as the extractants. Tetrabutylammonium chloride (TBAC)-ethanol DES at a molar ratio of 1:2 achieved the best extraction efficiency. Under the optimized conditions, the detection limits were in the range of 2.1–3.0 ng mL−1. The intra-day and inter-day repeatability were in the ranges of 3.9–5.3% and 4.8–7.1%, respectively, and the recoveries for the real samples varied from 80.7% to 105.4%. The developed method was successfully employed for the determination of all four tocopherol homologues with an RP-HPLC system containing a COSMOSIL π-NAP column in five edible oils collected locally.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge with gratitude and appreciation financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province (No. 201801D221090 and 201901D211582), the Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21706271), the Ningxia Key Research and Development Program (Science and Technology support) Project (No. 2019BEG03071), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2019 M653488).

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  1. Qilong Xie and Ming Xia contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Coal Conversion, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Taiyuan, 030001, Shanxi, China

    Qilong Xie, Ming Xia, Dekui Sun, Yong Xiao, Mingui Lin, Bo Hou, Litao Jia & Debao Li

  2. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Ningxia Normal University, Guyuan, 756000, Ninxia, China

    Jiangping Cao

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  1. Qilong Xie
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Xie, Q., Xia, M., Sun, D. et al. Deep eutectic solvent-based liquid-phase microextraction coupled with reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography for determination of α-, β-, γ-, and δ-tocopherol in edible oils. Anal Bioanal Chem 413, 577–584 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-020-03029-1

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