Abstract:A rapid method was developed for the simultaneous determination of catechins phenolic compounds in Camellia oil by ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). The compounds were separated on a waters T3 C18 column with 0.1% (V/V) formic acid aqueous solution and methanol as mobile phase by gradient elution, then analyzed by positive electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry under multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. Under the optimal conditions, 8 catechins phenolic compounds showed good linearity over tested concentration ranges with the correlation coefficients from 0.9966 to 0.9995 (r2). The 1imits of detection (LOD) were in the range of 0.2~1.1 μg/L. The average recoveries of different levels ranged from 76.4% to 93.4% with the relative standard deviations (RSDs) from 3.0% to 8.9%. This method was employed to detect 8 phenolic compounds including C, EC, EGC, ECG, EGCG in Camellia oil. The results indicated that the EGCG is much higher in Camellia oil. The method was accurate and reliable, quick and suitable for the analysis of phenols in edible oils.
