60 MHz 1H NMR Spectroscopy of Triglyceride Mixtures

Edible oils and fats consist almost entirely of triglycerides, thus triglycerides are of great economic and nutritional importance. Triglycerides are esters of glycerol comprising a glyceride backbone with three fatty acids. These three acyl residues need not be the same, thus edible oils and fats naturally exhibit diverse triglyceride compositions. There are numerous ways of analysing the triglyceride content of oils and fats however the presence of hydrogens in the different environments allows for proton NMR. Here, the authors outline recent results on triglyceride mixtures obtained using a new, low-field 1H NMR spectrometer called Pulsar. The Pulsar is based on permanent magnets rather than the superconducting magnets standard in modern high-field instruments. Any technique capable of analysing triglyceride mixtures is therefore able to establish key compositional properties of pure oils and fats and may be able to detect the addition of one oil to another. Using these approaches, low-field 1H NMR offers a viable method for testing the authenticity of meat and the detecting the adulteration of edible oils with one another.