High-performance liquid chromatography with nuclear magnetic resonance detection—A method for quantification of α- and γ-linolenic acids in their mixtures with free fatty acids

While many naturally occurring mixtures of free fatty acids are conveniently analyzed by hyphenated technique of LC-NMR, a complete separation of α- and γ-linolenic acids for their quantitative determination appears impossible at least by the methods of reversed phase HPLC. However, they can be differentiated and quantified from 1H NMR spectra measured in the course of isocratic acetonitrile–chloroform (90:10, with C8 and C18 columns in series) LC-NMR analysis without the need for any derivatization.