Characterization of Jamaican agro-industrial wastes. Part II, fatty acid profiling using HPLC: precolumn derivatization with phenacyl bromide.

This paper describes the determination of fatty acid composition of coffee, citrus and rum distillery wastes using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC). Lipid extracts of the waste samples are derivatized with phenacyl bromide and their phenacyl esters are separated on a C8 reversed-phase column by using continuous gradient elution with water and acetonitrile. The presence of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids in quantifiable amounts in the examined wastes, as well as the high percentage recoveries, are clear indications that these wastes have potential value as inexpensive sources of lipids. The HPLC procedures described here could be adopted for further analysis of materials of this nature.