Chromatographic techniques for the determination of alkyl-phenols, tocopherols and other minor polar compounds in raw and roasted cold pressed cashew nut oils

Anacardium occidentale belongs to the family Anacardiaceae and is principally grown in tropical America (Mexico, Peru, Brazil, etc.) and India. Cashew nuts contain low amounts of hydroxy alkyl phenols that come from an oily liquid present in their shell and that is known as cashew-nut shell liquid. This paper reports the alkyl phenols composition of cold pressed raw and roasted cashew nut oil. First of all, cashew nut shell liquid was used for a basic fractionation of the alkyl phenol classes by preparative TLC and definitively identified by GC-MS and GC-FID. Anacardic acids were the major alkylphenols contained in both oils followed by cardol, cardanol and 2-methylcardol compounds, respectively. Raw and roasted oils did not show different compositions except for cardanols. The oil produced from roasted cashew nut reported a higher concentration of cardanols. Furthermore, tocopherols and other minor polar compounds were determined by HPLC-FLD and HPLC-DAD-MS, respectively. Tocopherol content varied in a range of 171.48-29.56 mg/100 g from raw to roasted cashew nut oil, being beta-tocopherol the one which presented a higher decrease (93.68%). Also minor polar compounds in cashew oil decreased after roasting from 346.52 to 262.83 mg/kg. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.