Abstract: Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used for the speciation analysis of phytosterols in camellia seed oils from the 11 major producing regions in China, and the dynamic change of phytosterols during the refining and storage of camellia seed oils was investigated. The results showed that a total of nine sterols were detected at concentrations of 3 072.87–5 713.48 mg/kg in the oil samples, existing in bound and free forms, with the bound ones being dominant, accounting for 97.4%–99.4% of the total amount. The major sterols included lanosterol, β-amirin and β-sitosterol. After refining, the content of free sterols decreased by 94.1%, and the content of bound sterols decreased by 25.1%; the deacidification process affected both forms of sterols most. After storage, the contents of bound and free sterols decreased by 12.0% and 40.9%, respectively, suggesting that bound sterols showed stronger oxidation stability. Through principal component analysis (PCA), it was found that bound lanosterol and free β-sitosterol were the major characteristic components of camellia seed oil and were the most stable.

Key words: camellia seed oil; free sterols; bound sterols; refining; storage