Simple and accurate quantification of diacylglycerols in vegetable oils by solid-phrase extraction chemical labelling coupled with UHPLC-MS/MS

In the present study, a simple, accurate and simultaneous determination of diacylglycerol (DAG) compounds in vegetable oils were proposed by solid-phrase extraction (SPE) coupled with chemical labelling-based UHPLC-MS/MS. The experimental conditions of SPE purification, chemical labelling and UHPLC-MS/MS were investigated. Under the optimized parameters, the limit of quantification ranged from 4 μg kg⁻¹ to 25 μg kg⁻¹, and the limit of detection ranged from 1 μg kg⁻¹ to 7 μg kg⁻¹. Acceptable recoveries of all analytes were obtained ranging from 67.4% to 106.1% with the intra-day and inter-day precisions less than 14.8%. The validation results indicated that nine 1,3-DAG compounds were found at the concentration ranging from trace level to relative high amount in four types of edible oils. The proposed method simultaneously analyzed 16 DAG compounds in complicated matrix and accurately profiled the content and distribution of functional components in vegetable oils.