A sensitive and rapid ultra performance liquid  chromatographic (UPLC) method for the simultaneous determination of α‐tocopherol, β‐tocopherol, γ‐tocopherol, δ‐tocopherol, α‐tocotrienol, β‐tocotrienol, γ‐tocotrienol, δ‐tocotrienol, α‐tocopherol acetate, α‐tocopherol nicotinate and 2,2,5,7,8-pentamethyl-6-chromanol is described. The separation was achieved with a Kinetex^TM PFP column (150 mm×2.1 mm×2.6 µm) operated at 42˚C, under a gradient system consisting of methanol and water at a constant flow rate of 0.38 mL/min. Both UV and fluorescence detection (FD) were employed. The UV detection wavelength was at 292 nm, while FD was performed at set excitation and emission wavelengths of 297 nm and 328 nm as compromise settings for all analytes. All the eleven analytes were well separated in less than 10 min. The method was validated in terms of linearity, limit of detection, quantitative precision, and recoveries. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of vitamin E in vegetable oils (extra virgin olive, virgin olive, pure olive, sunflower, soybean, palm, carotenoid, crude palm, walnut, rice bran and grape seed) and margarines. The developed method exhibits significant advantages over conventional methods due to its short analysis time, sensitivity, good chromatographic separation and reproducibility.

Keywords: UPLC, tocopherol, tocotrienol, vegetable oil, margarine