IDENTIFICATION OF VEGETABLE OILS

Abstract

The identification of substances of unknown composition in different environmental
samples is one of the main activities of the chemical laboratory of Population Protection
Institute. For this purpose, the laboratory has developed standard operating procedures.
However, there are cases where established procedures can not be used to identify substances.
One such case was the request for the identification of vegetable oils in the samples, namely a
sample of contaminated water and a sample from a fire place. This paper deals with the
verification of the methods described in the literature based on gas chromatography with mass
detection. Before analysis sample modification is necessary. Sample processing consists in two
steps, the extraction in a suitable solvent with subsequent derivatization. This paper summarizes
the results of experimental works including their use in the analysis of real samples