Simplified saponification procedure for the routine determination of total vitamin E in dairy products, foods and tissues by high-performance liquid chromatography

Abstract

A simplified approach involving saponification is described for situations in which this route is favoured over total lipid extraction. Sample preparation is completed in a single test-tube, within 45 min, followed by injection and quantification by either reversed- or normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. α-Tocopherol (or its acetate ester) is recovered adequately (94.8%; coefficient of variation = 3.8%) but other less biologically significant congeners are subject to losses, a feature shared by other reported saponification schemes.