Proposed RP–HPTLC–FLD kit for analysis of vitamin A palmitate in edible oils

Preschool-aged children and non-pregnant women of reproductive age particularly in countries of a lower socio-demographic index may experience insufficient dietary vitamin A. Fortifying staple foods such as edible oils with vitamin A is a useful approach to reduce malnutrition. To enable better quality oil fortification, producers need reliable and inexpensive tools for assessment of the vitamin A contents of their products. A simple reversed-phase high-performance thin-layer chromatography fluorescence detection (RP-HPTLC-FLD) method was developed and studied for the quantification of vitamin A palmitate (VAP) in five edible plant oils. The challenging matrices of non-refined palm kernel oil and soybean oil, which are known to interfere with the accuracy of some easy-to-use test kits, were separated from VAP using the new RP-HPTLC-FLD method. The standard addition method provided good accuracy and acceptable calibration curves (coefficients of determination R² between 0.9874 and 0.9999) even for manual application. The developed RP-HPTLC-FLD method proved simple, robust, sustainable, cost-efficient, and suitable for low-tech (minimum equipment) on-site analysis.