Gradients of <i>n</i>‐heptane and acetonitrile in silver‐ion high‐performance liquid chromatography analyses of <i>cis</i> and <i>trans</i> bonds in lipids

Abstract

Abstract Cis and trans isomers of fatty acid methyl esters, fatty alcohols, and triacylglycerols were analyzed with a silverion high‐performance liquid chromatography system. Gradients of n ‐heptane and acetonitrile were used to elute molecules with up to nine cis double bonds. The analyses were as fast and reliable and had a resolution similar to that of the best published analyses. However, published analyses were performed with chlorinated solvents, and these solvents are carcinogenic and mutagenic. The solvents we used, heptane and acetonitrile, are less dangerous to the analyst.