TOCOL AND PHYTOSTEROL COMPOSITION OF EDIBLE OILS IN THE EGYPTIAN MARKET MOHAMED FAWZY RAMADAN HASSANIEN 1 Department of Agricultural Biochemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Zagazig 44519, Egypt 1 Corresponding author. TEL: +2-055-2320282 or +2-012-9782424; FAX: +2-055-2287567 or +2-055-2345452; EMAIL: mframadan@zu.edu.eg Received for Publication November 19, 2010 Accepted for Publication September 18, 2011 doi:10.1111/j.1745-4549.2011.00621.x ABSTRACT The goal of this investigation was to quantify phytosterols (ST) (campesterol, b-sitosterol, stigmasterol, b-sitostanol and campestanol) and tocols (TO, tocopherol and tocotrienol) in the edible oils (corn oil, sunflower oil, blended oil and palm oil) in the Egyptian market. The best source of ST was corn oil (4,814 mg/g) samples while palm oil samples had the lowest ST level (660 mg/g). Values of total ST were 2,872 and 3,443 mg/g for sunflower and blended oil samples, respectively. b-sitosterol was the main ST (ca. 70%), followed by campesterol (ca. 16%) and stig- masterol (ca. 9.4%), while b-sitostanol and campestanol were detected in some oils in small amounts or traces. Levels of total TO in corn, sunflower, blended and palm oil samples were 891.4, 716.1, 707.5 and 311.8 mg/g, respectively. In sunflower and blended oil samples, a-tocopherol was the main TO which accounted for more than 80% of total TO, while a-tocopherol was found in lower levels in corn and palm oils accounting for ca. 40% of TO. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS Vegetable oil production in Egypt is centralized with few manufacturing compa- nies. Epidemiological studies on ST and TO consumption and health impact are difficult to find, however, because few databases are found. The aim of the present study was to survey for the first time the ST and TO composition of a variety of the main commercially available edible oils in the Egyptian market. The TO and ST levels of oil samples were determined using validated normal phase high- performance liquid chromatography and gas liquid chromatography with flame ionization detection methods. There is a wide spread of concentrations of ST and TO in the edible oils consumed in Egypt. As this survey database is meant to be used in other prospective cohort studies, a slight overestimation of ST and TO levels may be less important because the database only needs to rank the ST and TO intake of people in order to study associations with morbidity and mortality. The database levels presented in this work are valid for ranking of ST and TO intake in epidemiological studies. INTRODUCTION Edible vegetable oils are a major source of phytosterols (ST) and tocols (TO) in the diet. They contribute 20 and 41% of the total a-tocopherol equivalent intake in the U.S.A. and in Finland, respectively (Murphy et al. 1990; Heinonen and Piironen 1991), and to 26, 39 and 50% of the total ST intake in Holland, Finland and Spain, respectively (Normén et al. 2001; Valsta et al. 2004; Jiménez-Escrig et al. 2006). Plant sterols are isoprenoid compounds with a sterol nucleus and an alkyl chain. Most plant sterols have a double bond in position C-5 in the nucleus, while others are totally saturated and called stanols (Schwartz et al. 2008). In this work, the term “phytosterols, ST” is used for both sterols and stanols. Together with cholesterol, ST are chemically classified as 4-desmethyl-sterols, wherein more than 250 types of ST have been reported (Piironen et al. 2000a,b). The most common ST are sitosterol (24a-ethylcholest-5en-3b-ol), Journal of Food Processing and Preservation ISSN 1745-4549 531 Journal of Food Processing and Preservation 36 (2012) 531–538 © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.