The primary reasons to analyze fatty acids as fatty acid methyl esters include: In their free, underivatized form, fatty acids may be difficult to analyze because these highly polar compounds tend to form hydrogen bonds, leading to adsorption issues.

As you have found, a range of $45 to maybe $200- to $300 is becoming realistic. The “GC artiste” may want you to furnish a new GC capillary column for $1000 to thousands, but your somewhat polar natural products won’t likely ruin an existing “general” GC column.

For the separation of a complex FAME mixture containing a relatively large amount of trans-fatty acids, a highly polar HP-88 column is preferred.

The cost per sample is also based upon the number of samples to be analyzed. As a rough approximation metals analyses usually run between $25 and $75 per sample, and LC/MS/MS and GC/MS/MS analyses are typically between $100 and $200 per sample.

The initial outlay for one large membrane chromatography equivalent costs about $3,500, and each membrane is used for one cycle. Therefore the per-cycle cost for equipment is $3,500 — more than double the cost of the column and medium.

The main disadvantage of FAME analysis for detection and identification of individual strains lies in the power of resolution of the method. Analysis is limited due to the restricted number of strains and FAME profiles available in the [email protected] database.

The selection of the proper capillary column for any application should be based on four significant factors: stationary phase, column I.D., film thickness, and column length. The practical effects of these factors on the performance of the column are discussed briefly in this section, in order of importance.

Typical Fees

Agilent J&W DB-23 is specifically designed for the high-quality separation of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs). It is bonded, crosslinked, and solvent rinsable, and is a close equivalent to USP phase G5. This column has excellent resolution and a wide operating temperature range, and is well suited for procedures using cis- and trans- FAME isomers.

Precision-engineered DB-1 is bonded, crosslinked and solvent rinsable, and is equivalent to USP phase G2. Standard Polysiloxane GC Columns

The Agilent Polar GC column range includes highly popular phases such as DB –Wax and DB-FFAP phases. This range also includes legacy Chrompack (CP) and Varian (VF) polar GC phases.

Crawford Scientific is the UK’s leading supplier of GC columns from leading manufacturers, Agilent Technologies and Thermo Scientific. We have an extensive range of capillary columns as well as plot and packed columns from brands such as J&W, Varian, Chrompack, TRACE, TraceGOLD and TracePLOT.