Comprehensive molecular mapping of vegetable oil autoxidation products by NMR-based oxylipidomics

Lipid oxidation is one the major causes of food deterioration. Current advancement in mechanistic understanding is limited by the lack of high-throughput methods that can simultaneously quantify a wide range of oxidation product classes, such as lipid hydroperoxides, epoxides, ketones, hydroxides, and aldehydes. Here, we introduce an NMR-based ‘oxylipidomics’ platform by providing the annotation of 42 substructures formed during lipid oxidation in vegetable oils. The annotated substructures accounted for respectively 93, 90 and 70 % of the oxidation products of triolein, trilinolein and trilinolenin. The spectral assignments allowed for quantification of lipid oxidation products in vegetable oil at class level (e.g., epoxides) and substructure level (e.g., trans-epoxides) at the commonly available field strength of 14.1 T (600 MHz). We anticipate that our workflow will enable rapid assessment of health risks, unravelling of precursor-sensory relationships, rational design of antioxidant strategies, and in-depth mechanistic studies into food lipid oxidation.