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METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE α‐TOCOPHEROL CONTENT OF CITRUS ESSENTIAL OILS
Author(s) -
WATERS R. D.,
KESTERSON J. W.,
BRADDOCK R. J.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
journal of food science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1750-3841
pISSN - 0022-1147
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2621.1976.tb00621.x
Subject(s) - chemistry , tocopherol , chromatography , reagent , silica gel , elution , column chromatography , methanol , ethanol , benzene , ferric , fraction (chemistry) , vitamin e , organic chemistry , antioxidant
A simple and reliable method for determining the amount of naturally occurring α‐tocopherol in citrus essential oils is presented. The unsaponified oil is streaked directly onto a Silica Gel G TLC plate and developed in a benzene‐methanol solution to effect separation of tocopherols. The α‐tocopherol band is scraped from the plate and eluted with small volumes of absolute ethanol so that subsequent concentration of the fraction is not necessary. Ferric chloride‐bipyridyl reagents are added to the eluent and the absorption at 520 nm is determined using a spectrophotometer. A standard curve is prepared using the same procedure so as to eliminate the need for using correction factors.