Quality control of oils and fats is important in food chemistry and in the food industry. The content of antioxidant substances in vegetable oil products is of great importance for determining the stability of the products. Vitamin E represents one of the largest groups of natural antioxidants, including several tocopherols and tocotrienol compounds. These phenolic compounds are among the many naturally occurring substances known to be electrochemically active.
In my work, I have determined vitamin E using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). I have specified vitamin E in sunflower oil, extra virgin olive oil and hemp oil. First I optimized the method by determining optimal conditions. Then I tried to extract vitamin E from vegetable oil samples using two different techniques. The first was the method of direct extraction of vitamin E in absolute ethanol and the second involved saponification of the oil and further extraction. For the determination of vitamin E, I used the method of direct extraction because it was repeatable. I did not achieve this with the saponification method.
The determination of vitamin E by differential pulse voltammetry has proven to be an effective method in oils with a higher concentration of α- tocopherol.
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