Identification, Confirmation and Determination of Tert-Butylhydroquinone Degradation Products in Vegetable Oil

Objective: By simulating the heating process of edible oil in daily life, the transformation and degradation conditions of tert butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ) in vegetable oil samples containing TBHQ were determined. The two transformation products of TBHQ, tert butyl p-benzoquinone (TQ) and 2,5-di-tert-butyl-1,4-benzoquinone (TBK), were finally determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and matching of unknown compounds with the database. And a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method was developed for the determination of tert-Butyl-hydroquinone (TBHQ) and its two degradation products 2-tert-Butyl-1,4-benzoquinone (TQ) and 2,5-di-tert-butyl-1,4-benzoquinone (TBK) in vegetableoil. Methods: The sample was dissolved in n-hexane saturated with acetonitrile and extracted with acetonitrile saturated with n-hexane. The acetonitrile layer was extracted twice, and the acetonitrile layer was combined. The acetonitrile layer was concentrated to nearly dry in 40 ℃ water bath and then redissolved with meth