Determination of fatty acids in algae Chlorella by gas chromatography

A shortcut method to analyze fatty acids in marine algae quickly and easily was reported in the paper.The ultrasonic extraction was used in the pretreatment of algae Chlorella,then the fatty acids were converted to fatty acid methyl esters by 1 mol/L HCl-CH3OH.The composition of fatty acid methyl esters was analyzed with gas chromatography and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.Nine fatty acids including C14:0,C16:2,C16:1,C16:0,C18:2,C18:1,C18:3,C18:0,C20:0 were found and the unsaturated fatty acids was 65% of total.The relative standard deviations of six parallel samples were 6.04%~9.84%.The recoveries for spiked standards in samples were 77.0%~122.6%.The limits of detection for instrument were below 0.3 ng.The rule of retention time for fatty acid methyl ester was investigated.This method is very simple,quick and accurate and could be used in practical application.