A high performance liquid chromatography method for determination of furfural in crude palm oil

Chia Chun Loi; Huey Chern Boo; Abdulkarim Sabo Mohammed; Abdul Azis Ariffin

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2010.12.108

A high performance liquid chromatography method for determination of furfural in crude palm oil

Food Chem. 2011 Sep 1;128(1):223-6. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2010.12.108. Epub 2011 Jan 14.

Authors

Chia Chun Loi¹, Huey Chern Boo¹, Abdulkarim Sabo Mohammed¹, Abdul Azis Ariffin²

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
² Faculty of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Electronic address: abdulazis@putra.upm.edu.my.

PMID: 25214353
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2010.12.108

Abstract

A modified steam distillation method was developed to extract furfural from crude palm oil (CPO). The collected distillates were analysed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with an ultraviolet diode detector at 284nm. The HPLC method allowed identification and quantification of furfural in CPO. The unique thermal extraction of CPO whereby the fresh fruit bunches (FFB) are first subjected to steam treatment, distinguishes itself from other solvent-extracted or cold-pressed vegetable oils. The presence of furfural was also determined in the fresh palm oil from FFB (without undergoing the normal extraction process), palm olein, palm stearin, olive oil, coconut oil, sunflower oil, soya oil and corn oil. The chromatograms of the extracts were compared to that of standard furfural. Furfural was only detected in CPO. The CPO consignments obtained from four mills were shown to contain 7.54 to 20.60mg/kg furfural.

Keywords: Carbohydrate; Crude palm oil; Furfural; HPLC; Hemicelluloses.