Developing method of simultaneously determining content of 11 triterpene alcohols and analyzing the influence factors in camellia oil

Triterpene alcohols with a series of bioactivities are important minor compounds in camellia oil. Thus, the determination and characterization of triterpene alcohols in camellia oil are essential to the development of camellia oil bioactivity. Herein, a method that simultaneously determines 11 triterpene alcohols was developed and validated; samples from different production areas and oil processing methods were determined, and the storage and thermal stability of triterpene alcohol were characterized. Results showed that the proposed method had good sensitivity, accuracy, and precision, with linearity, LOD, LOQ, spike recovery, and RSD of 0.9964–0.9989, 0.14–5.53 mg/kg, 0.45–18.44 mg/kg, 82.90% 108.51%, and 4.38% 12.69%, respectively. Oils processed with low press flux, cold press, and aqueous extraction had high triterpene alcohol content. Triterpene alcohols showed fluctuation similar to sterols. They were stable overall during storage, and were degraded during heating. Our study can be used as a reference for triterpene alcohol determination and development of camellia oil products containing high content of triterpene alcohols.