Studies on phytosterol oxides. I: Effect of storage on the content in potato chips prepared in different vegetable oils

Abstract Potato chips fried in palm oil, sunflower oil, and high‐oleic sunflower oil were studied for the content of different phytosterol oxides during 0 to 25 weeks of storage in the dark. Oxidation products of sitosterol (24α‐ethyl‐5‐cholesten‐3β‐ol) and campesterol (24α‐methyl‐t‐cholesten‐3β‐ol) were synthesized to help identify the phytosterol oxides. The oxides of phytosterols were analyzed by preparative thin‐layer chromatography, solid‐phase extraction, capillary column gas chromatography (GC), and GC‐mass spectrometry. Epimers of 7‐hydroxysitosterol and 7‐hydroxycampesterol; 7‐ketositosterol and 7‐ketocampesterol; epimers of 5,6‐epoxy‐sitosterol and 5,6‐epoxy‐campesterol; 24α‐ethylcholestane‐3β,5,6β‐triol (dihydroxysitosterol) and 24α‐methylcholestane‐3β,5,6β‐triol (dihydroxycampesterol) were detected and quantitated in the samples of chips fried in different vegetable oils. Potato chips fried in palm oil had the lowest level of total sterol oxides, ranging from 5 to ca. 9 ppm in the lipids from time 0 to 25 wk of storage. The level of total sterol oxides in chip samples fried in sunflower oil ranged from 46 to 47 ppm, and the lipids in samples fried in high‐oleic sunflower oil ranged from 35 to 58 ppm from 0 time to 25 wk of storage. During 25 wk of storage no considerable increase in sterol oxides was observed in the samples of chips fried in palm oil and sunflower oil. The chip samples fried in high‐oleic sunflower oil had slightly higher levels of sterol oxides after 10 and 25 weeks of storage. In addition to the levels of individual sterol oxides, a new method for enrichment of phytosterol oxides from the unsaponifiables and full‐scan mass spectra of various oxidation products of sitosterol and campesterol are reported in this paper.