Quantitative determination of conjugated linoleic acid and polyunsaturated fatty acids in milk with C17:0 as internal marker – Evaluation of different methylation procedures

Fatty acids are commonly analysed by gas chromatography as their corresponding fatty acid (FA) methyl esters (FAME). For quantitative determination of individual FA an internal standard like C17:0 is necessary. Conjugated FA and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) represents a challenge in the methylation steps, as they are sensitive to pH changes and oxidation. The present study was carried out to determine the efficiency of different methylation procedures on quantitative determination of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), PUFA and response of internal standard. The highest response of internal standard was observed for boron trifluoride (BF(3))/methanol and methanolic HCl followed by NaOCH(3), while cis-9, trans-11 CLA, total CLA and PUFA was higher with methanolic HCl followed by NaOCH(3) compared with the BF(3) method. These data can be useful for quantitating of milk FA.