title: Classification of vegetable oils according to their botanical origin using sterol profiles established by direct infusion mass spectrometry.
abstract: A simple and quick method to classify vegetable oils according to their botanical origin, based on direct infusion of sterol extracts into a mass spectrometer, was developed. Using mass spectrometry (MS) with either an electrospray ionization or an atmospheric pressure photoionization source, followed by linear discriminant analysis of the mass spectral data, oil samples corresponding to eight different botanical origins were perfectly classified with an excellent resolution among all the categories. An excellent correlation between the sterol profiles obtained by MS and by the official gas chromatography (with flame ionization detection) method was obtained. Thus, the proposed method is a promising alternative for sterol fingerprinting of vegetable oils, with the advantage that prior chromatographic separation is not required.
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Valencia, 46100 Burjassot, Valencia, Spain. m.jesus.lerma@uv.es
authors.forename: María J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Lerma-García
authors.forename: Guillermo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ramis-Ramos
authors.forename: José M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Herrero-Martínez
authors.forename: Ernesto F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Simó-Alfonso
mesh_terms: D017022:Flow Injection Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D005504:Food Analysis / Q000379:methods; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D010840:Phytosterols / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D010938:Plant Oils / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / Q000379:methods*; D014675:Vegetables / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D010840:Phytosterols; D010938:Plant Oils