Chemical Characterization of a High-Oleic Soybean Oil

High-oleic low-linolenic acid soybean oil (HOLLSB, Plenish®) is an emerging new oil with projections of rapid expansion in the USA. HOLLSB has important technological advantages, which are expected to drive a gradual replacement of commodity oils used in food applications such as soybean oil. A key technological advantage of HOLLSB is its relatively high oxidation stability. This oxidation stability is the result of a favorable fatty acid composition, high (76%) oleic acid, low linoleic (6.7%), and alpha-linolenic (1.6%) acids, and high concentration of tocopherols (936 ppm) after refining, enriched with the gamma-homolog (586 ppm). A detailed analysis of the fatty acid composition of this HOLLSB by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry allowed the identification and structural determination of 9-cis-heptadecenoic acid (or 17:1n-8). To our knowledge, this is the first time 9-cis-heptadecenoic acid has been unequivocally reported in soybean oil. This unusual fatty acid component has the potential to be used as a single authenticity marker for the quantitative assessment of soybean oil. The Rancimat induction period (IP) of Plenish® (16.1 hours) was higher than those of other commercially available high-oleic oils, such as canola (13.4 hours), and Vistive® Gold (10 hours), a different variety of soybean oil. Plenish® showed the same IP as high-oleic sunflower oil. Plenish® shows a modest increase in oxidation stability with the external addition or relatively high concentrations of tocopherols. The characteristic high oxidative stability of Plenish® may be further enhanced with the use of nontocopherol antioxidants. © 2018 AOCS