Assessing the Impact of Oil Types and Grades on Tocopherol and Tocotrienol Contents in Vegetable Oils with Chemometric Methods

The consumption of vegetable oil is an important way for the body to obtain tocols. However, the impact of oil types and grades on the tocopherol and tocotrienol contents in vegetable oils is unclear. In this study, nine types of traditional edible oils and ten types of self-produced new types of vegetable oil were used to analyze eight kinds of tocols. The results showed that the oil types exerted a great impact on the tocol content of traditional edible oils. Soybean oils, corn oils, and rapeseed oils all could be well distinguished from sunflower oils. Both sunflower oils and cotton seed oils showed major differences from camellia oils as well as sesame oils. Among them, rice bran oils contained the most abundant types of tocols. New types of oil, especially sacha inchi oil, have provided a new approach to obtaining oils with a high tocol content. Oil refinement leads to the loss of tocols in vegetable oil, and the degree of oil refinement determines the oil grade. However, the oil grade could not imply the final tocol content in oil from market. This study could be beneficial for the oil industry and dietary nutrition.