Gas chromatographic analysis of volatile fatty acids for identification of obligately anaerobic bacteria and for
presumptive diagnosis of anaerobic infections is now widely practiced. However, it is difficult to compare data
because only a qualitative analysis is done or only chromatograms are presented instead of quantitative data
on volatile fatty acid production. We compared three stationary phases for volatile fatty acid analysis of
aqueous solutions and four methods of pretreating samples for gas chromatography. Quantitative analysis
could be done accurately by using Carbowax as the stationary phase after pretreatment of spent culture media
with Dowex columns. If only qualitative analysis is required (e.g., for presumptive diagnosis of anaerobic
infections), ether extraction and headspace analysis are equally suitable. The overall variation coefficient for
volatile fatty acid production by four reference strains of obligately anaerobic bacteria after 24 h of incubation
was approximately 10%.