Direct Methylation Method for Quantification of Fatty Acids in Lyophilized Human Milk by Gas Chromatography with Flame Ionization Detector

Abstract

This study aims to propose a new method for derivatizing fatty acids (FAs) from human milk (HM), eliminating the lipid extraction step, and simplifying the preparation for gas chromatography with a flame ionization detection (GC-FID) analysis to quantify the FAs. The Design Expert software optimized the reaction times, concentrations, and sample amount. The proposed method (PM) was validated for lyophilized HM and results for the figures of merit for precision in relative standard deviation (RSD) (RSDintra-day 1.34-4.03% and RSDinter-day 2.08-5.16%), accuracy (99.87-102.16%), and robustness are within a linear range of 3 to 38% lipids in HM samples. The atmospheric solids analysis probe tandem mass spectrometry (ASAP-MS/MS) technique confirmed the efficiency of PM by expressing the molecular composition of triacylglycerol formed by FAs from the GC-FID technique. The PM requires a small sample size and conducts derivatization directly in the sample matrix, minimizing extraction errors.