Determination of oleocanthal in extra virgin olive oils using high-performance liquid chromatography

Abstract

This work is focused on the determination of oleocanthal in nineteen extra virgin olive oils plus one sample of the olive pomace oil using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) coupled either with a spectrophotometric detector (set at λ = 275 nm) or a mass spectrometer. Sample pre-treatment including a two-step liquidliquid extraction by polar solvents was performed and thoroughly optimised. The extract of oleocanthal was analysed using Poroshell 120 EC-C18 column (150 × 3 mm, i.d. 2.7 μm) in combination with the binary mobile phases consisting of water and acetonitrile. The sum of oleocanthal hemiacetals was quantified by the calibration curve method and the standard addition method. The content of oleocanthal in the samples was found within a range of 2.8–27.2 mg/100 g. It is shown that the method can also be used for evaluation of the olive oil quality.