Study on Accurate Determination of Volatile Fatty Acids in Rumen Fluid by Capillary Gas Chromatography

Abstract

In order to obtain accurate results of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) in rumen fluid by capillary gas chromatography (GC), a pretreatment method was firstly conducted by dissolving VFAs in the methanol. An internal standard method (ISM) with crotonic acid as the internal standard was adopted in the detection. The results showed that the reproducibility of VFA (acetic acid, propanoic acid and butyric acid) was enhanced remarkably with methanol added as the solvent. The reproducibility was dependent on both of the VFA concentration and methanol amount. In conclusion, methanol solvent was more suitable than aqueous solvent for VFA accurate detection with ISM by capillary GC.