Gas chromatography was first developed by lipid analysts, and lipid analysts havebeen at the forefront in the development of the technique. In recent years, therehas been a remarkable improvement in the resolution attainable by gaschromatography thanks to the availability of capillary columns fabricated from fusedsilica. The stability and inertness of such columns has simultaneously increasedthe range of applications. Related developments in mass spectrometry have meantthat the combined technique of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry is lesscostly, more versatile and more accessible than formerly. I, therefore, felt that abook on "Gas Chromatography and Lipids" was timely and would complement mybook on "High-performance Liquid Chromatography and Lipids", published at theend of 1987. There are still many gaps in our knowledge that remain to be filled,and many published procedures could be improved. Hopefully, this book willstimulate further endeavours. In the Preface to my previous books, I stated that Ihoped they would "remain on the laboratory bench, not on the library shelf". Thatcomment is equally apposite hereI am grateful to the Director and Council of the Hannah Research Institute and tothe Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland for permission to write thisbook. Dr. John H. Shand read and criticized each of the chapters as they werewritten, and his assistance is gratefully acknowledged. Similarly, D. Cooney and S.Armour helped greatly with the preparation of the figures. My final thanks must goto my wife, Norma, for her assistance throughout the project, including a great dealof the typing.This is the first book from a new publishing company, "The Oily Press Ltd", whoseobjective will be to serve lipid chemists and biochemists by issuing compact,practical and readable texts on all aspects of lipid research.

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