Oxidative modifications of conjugated and unconjugated linoleic acid during heating.

The oxidative stability of conjugated linoleic (CLA) and linoleic (LA) acids in different chemical forms (free acids, methyl esters and homogeneous triacylglycerols) was compared. All model systems were heated at 180°C for different times (15, 30, 45 and 60min). The primary oxidation products were evaluated by spectrophometric analysis, while the volatile compounds were determined by solid phase micro-extraction (SPME), coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HRGC-MS). The isomer profile modifications were investigated by silver-ion high performance liquid chromatography (Ag(+)-HPLC) equipped with an UV detector. Generally, peroxide values decreased during the heating time. Among the volatiles, saturated aldehydes were the most represented compounds. Isomerization of cis,trans and trans,cis CLA to trans,trans isomers was observed mainly for the methyl form of CLA. The three different chemical forms of LA never showed isomerization phenomena.

Improved HRGC separation of cis, trans CLA isomers as Diels-Alder adducts of alkyl esters.

This paper reports the separation of four isomers of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), c,t/t,c-8,10; c,t/t,c-9,11; c,t/t,c-10,12; c,t/t,c-11,13, after reaction of esterification with aliphatic alcohols of different chain length and adduct formation with 4-methyl-1,2,4-triazoline-3,5-dione (MTAD). The high resolution gas chromatographic analyses were carried out using a simple 50-m cyanopropyl polysiloxane capillary column both with a flame ionization detector and a mass spectrometer. The resolution between the two pair of isomers: c,t/t,c-9,11 and c,t/t,c-10,12 and between c,t/t,c-10,12 and c,t/t,c-11,13 isomers were good for all the investigated alkyl esters and increased with the chain length of alcohol esterified to carboxylic moiety of CLA isomers. The most interesting result was relative to the c,t/t,c-8,10 and c,t/t,c-9,11 isomers, critical pair of isomers also when analyzed with a 120-m cyanopropyl polysiloxane capillary column; their resolution also increased from methyl to hexyl esters of CLA isomers and reached an acceptable value (0.8) in the case of hexyl esters. The best resolutions of the four considered CLA isomers were obtained with the hexyl esters of MTAD adducts of the isomers, without excessive analysis time. This method was useful and simple to evaluate the profile of the four main c,t isomers in commercial CLA samples.