Instantaneous characterization of crude vegetable oils via triacylglycerols fingerprint by atmospheric solids analysis probe tandem mass spectrometry with multiple neutral loss scans

Abstract Vegetable oils have many applications, including in food and cosmetics industries. In this study, triacylglycerols (TAG), the main components of vegetable oils, were investigated via Fourier transform infrared with attenuated total reflection analysis (FTIR-ATR), gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID), and atmospheric solids analysis probe tandem mass spectrometry (ASAP-MS/MS). Instantaneous characterization of 20 vegetable oils extracted according to the Bligh and Dyer method, including soybean, sunflower, sweet almond, and coconut oils, via TAGs fingerprint was provided by ASAP-MS/MS, directly from a droplet of the crude oil, without sample preparation and solvent use. It was found that each vegetable oil has a characteristic fingerprint of TAG and results were according to those obtained by GC-FID and FTIR-ATR analysis. In addition, the difference in the relative abundance of TAG composition could be used as the target in differentiating vegetable oil types from each other. As coconut oil was differentiated from other oils only by its mass spectrum, it was not applied to principal component analysis (PCA), which effectively differentiate sweet almond oil from soybean and sunflower oils. Therefore, the results demonstrate the potentiality of ASAP-MS/MS with chemometrics analysis as powerful, fast, clean, and non-destructive tools for characterization and quality control of vegetable oils.