Quantitation of Hydroperoxy-, Keto- and Hydroxy-Dienes During Oxidation of FAMEs from High-Linoleic and High-Oleic Sunflower Oils

The objective of this work was to study the quantitative formation of hydroperoxydienes, ketodienes and hydroxydienes during autoxidation at 40 °C of fatty acid methyl esters derived from two sunflower oils with different degree of unsaturation, high-linoleic sunflower oil and high-oleic sunflower oil. The analysis of the oxidation compounds was carried out by NP-HPLC–UV and results were compared to the specific extinction at 232 nm ( K 232 ) and the peroxide value (PV). Analysis of FAME polymers by HPSEC was also performed to discard samples of advanced oxidation. Results showed that the contents of hydroperoxydienes with respect to the PV were higher for the high linoleic (HL) sample. At the end of the period of slow polymerization (ΔPol ≤ 1 wt%), the content of hydroperoxydienes was found to be 86.0 and 30.7 μg/mg for the HL and high oleic (HO) samples, respectively. Throughout this period, hydroperoxydienes constituted around 90 and 50 wt% of the total hydroperoxides in the HL and HO samples, respectively, suggesting that a significant oxidation of oleic acid also occurred in both samples. The contents of ketodienes and hydroxydienes as a whole constituted 2–3 wt% of the diene compounds analyzed at the end of the period of slow polymerization. Higher contents of ketodienes than of hydroxydienes were found throughout the oxidation time, and the ratio between the contents of ketodienes and hydroxydienes increased with a factor that changed from 1 to 2 throughout the period of slow polymerization.