2001 AACC Annual Meeting Charlotte, North Carolina October 14-18, 2001 Charlotte Convention Center

Cereals are important sources of vitamin E active compounds in our diet. Especially they are rich in tocotrienols. Saponification procedures are most widely used when analyzing tocopherols (T) and tocotrienols (T3) in foods. Since T and T3 are labile in different chemical conditions, the pretreatment of cereal samples has to be carefully studied. The aim of this study was to develop a sample preparation method for T and T3 in small-scale and apply the method to analyze rye cultivars. T and T3 were analyzed by normal phase HPLC and fluorescence detection. Working was done under subdued light and the samples were protected with nitrogen. Experimental design was used to study the effects of various factors in the saponification procedure on T and T3 contents in rye flour. Saponification temperature (60-100 C) was insignificant on the yields. Analyzed T and T3 contents were largest at low KOH amounts. At mild alkaline conditions a need for >20 min saponification appeared. Finally, rye samples (0.5 g) were saponified with 0.25 g KOH in ethanol for 25 min in 100 C. T and T3 were extracted after saponification with hexane-ethyl acetate (8+2). Using this procedure the average recovery of added T was 92% and the total amount of T and T3 in whole grain rye flour was 2.9 mg/100 g.