Determination of Petroselinic, cis-Vaccenic and Oleic Acids in Some Seed Oils of the Umbelliferae by Silver Ion Thin Layer Chromatography of their Phenacyl Esters

Abstract

A method is proposed for the determination of petroselinic, oleic and cis-vaccenic acids in plants of the Umbelliferae by using silver ion thin layer chromatography and densitometry. The fatty acids are first converted into phenacyl esters and this enables base line separation at ambient temperature on a plate impregnated with 1 % methanolie silver nitrate. Conditions were found for the simultaneous determination of the saturated and dienoic fatty acids while maintaining the resolution of petroselinic and oleic acids. The procedure is suitable for screening plants of the Umbelliferae in phytochemical and selection studies, and may be of value as a small-scale preparative technique.