Quantification of palm oil bioactive compounds by ultra‐high‐performance supercritical fluid chromatography and chemometrics

Lycopene, beta‐carotene, coenzyme Q10, and lutein are minor constituents of palm oil that are removed during biodiesel production to produce light‐coloured oils. With the aim to investigate the recovery of these valuable compounds, a separation method was developed to quantify carotenoids and coenzyme Q10 in palm oil by ultra‐high‐performance supercritical fluid chromatography. Due to the presence of interferents, different clean‐up procedures were evaluated; however, these approaches were ineffective and the separation method was developed without this step. The chemometric method multivariate curve resolution‐alternating least squares was employed to properly quantify lycopene, beta‐carotene, and coenzyme Q10 in the presence of interferents. Lutein was sufficiently resolved to be quantified by a univariate method. Lycopene concentration was below the limit of quantification 3.12 μg/mL (3.12 × 10−3 kg/m3). Beta‐carotene concentration was determined as being 183.48 ± 1.66 μg/mL (183.48 ± 1.66 × 10−3 kg/m3). Coenzyme Q10 concentration was lower than the limit of detection 4.22 μg/mL (4.22 × 10−3 kg/m3) and lutein concentration 9.24 μg/mL (9.24 × 10−3 kg/m3) was below the limit of quantification. The study showed the analytical challenges associated with the separation and quantification of minor constituents of a highly complex matrix such as palm oil and demonstrated that the recovery of beta‐carotene could be economically viable due to its wide range of application in industry. UHPSFC technique coupled with chemometrics was a feasible tool to identify minor constituents of palm oil.