Fatty acid contaminations originating from commercially available solid phase-extraction columns

Abstract

It has been shown previously that commercially available solid phase extraction (SPE) columns release contaminants such as palmitic acid and stearic acid during separation of lipid classes. The presence of contaminating fatty acids in the fatty acid fraction is particularly troublesome. We here confirm that the overwhelming majority of the contaminants originate from the barrels, and have identified two contaminants as palmitic acid and stearic acid or their equivalents. We urge readers to take fatty acid contaminants into careful consideration when planning their experiments, and if necessary use sorbent packed in glass barrels instead of plastic such as polypropylene