ABSTRACT
Oils and fats are good sources of energy, containing essential fatty acids, fat soluble vitamins, nutrients and antioxidants which provide benefits to the human health, playing functional roles in the daily diet [33]. Thus, the fatty acids determination can be used for characterization and quality
control of oily products. For this reason, reliable analytical methods are required for the purpose of regulations for quality control and product labeling. Analysis of fatty acid profile has been generally performed by the use of gas chromatography [25]. Since direct determination is not recommended due to the low volatility and poor stability of fatty acids, derivatization to fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) is preferred in order to improve physical-chemical properties for chromatographic analysis [4, 19, 28]. The transesterification process of vegetable oils comprises the reaction of triglycerides with an alcohol in the presence of a strong acid or base catalyst producing a mixture of fatty acid alkyl esters and glycerol [36]. Basic catalysis is faster than acid catalysis, however the latter is strongly affected by mixing of the reactants and/or efficient heating, requiring strict anhydrous conditions [38-40, 42].
