Triglyceride species compositions of common edible vegetable oils and methods used for their identification and quantification

The chromatographic, spectrophotometric, and spectroscopic methods used for detection, identification, and quantification of the triglyceride (TG) species present in common edible vegetable oils are reviewed. The TG species identified in each kind of oil and their percentage distributions reported in literature are presented in tabular form. Data on oils from the following 10 sources are reviewed: corn, cottonseed, grapesecd, linseed, olive, palm, peanut, rapeseed, soybean, and sunflower. The number of TG species identified in these vegetable oils ranged from 20 (grapeseed oil (GR)) to 79 (peanut oil (PN)), with six (GR) to 13 (PN) different fatty acyl moieties contributing to their molecular structures. The quantitative levels reported ranged from traces (below 0.1%) to 49.7% (trilinolenin in linseed oil) and 54.6% (triolein in olive oil), respectively. The highest mean values (30-35%) correspond to four predominant TG species (dipalmitoylolein, trilinolein, trilinolenin, and triolein).