Grasas y Aceites, cilt.59, sa.2, ss.146-151, 2008 (SCI-Expanded)
Conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) exhibit protective effects against various types of cancer and heart diseases. With the newly developed capillary gas chromatographic method (GC), c/s9, trans11 and trans10, cis12 octadecadienoic acid isomers of CLA (C18:2) were determined in crude and refined corn oils as qualitative and quantitative measurements . Cis 9, trans11 C18:2 (c9, t11 CLA) was the major CLA isomer in both oils. It was found that c9, f11 CLA was 0.62% of the total lipid in crude oil and 1.24% of the total lipid in refined oil. Using the refining process, the total CLA was 1.38% whereas that of crude corn oil was 0.62%. An approximate 2.2 fold increase in the total CLA was found in refined oil (n = 9) (p < 0.01). The alteration in CLA could be used as a quality indicator for the refining process due to the contrubution of CLA to polyunsaturated fatty acids. Analytical method validation, calibration (R 2 = 0.9999) and recovery data [y = 2.782x + 0.046 (R2= 0.9999)] were performed (p < 0.01).The proposed Chromatographic procedure could be used for vegetable oil quality control.