The gas chromatograph in practical analyses of common and uncommon fatty acids for the 21st century

This is the fiftieth anniversary of the first publication on what became simply known as GLC (gas-liquid chromatography). It is therefore appropriate to point out that GLC was devised to solve an analytical problem with short chain fatty acids and has never looked back from its biomedical beginnings. The research applications have spread into volatile lipids and related materials of all kinds, and the common analyses of fatty acids extend from the fats in our diets into a sequence of complex developments in body biochemistry. Because of the basic simplicity of GLC, technical modifications have often been the result of independent redesign and developments by researchers. These were soon picked up by instrument manufacturers and this is the reason one can stress "practical analyses" in the title of this review. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.