Characterization of vegetable oils by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry fingerprinting: classification, quality, adulteration, and aging.

An improved approach for the direct infusion electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) analysis of vegetable oils is described. The more polar components of the oils, including the fatty acids, are simply extracted with methanol/water (1:1) solution and analyzed by direct infusion ESI-MS in both the negative and positive ion modes. This fingerprinting analysis was applied to genuine samples of olive, soybean, corn, canola, sunflower, and cottonseed oil, to admixtures of these oils, and samples of aged soybean oil. ESI-MS fingerprints in the positive ion mode of the extracts divide the oils into well-defined groups, as confirmed by principal component analysis, whereas ESI-MS fingerprints in the negative ion mode clearly differentiate olive oil from the five other refined oils. The method is also shown to detect aging and adulteration of vegetable oils.