AbstractThe wide variety of sterols normally found in extracts of bivalve molluscs leads to high variability in analytical data obtained with colorimetric (chole)sterol methods. Total sterol levels in oyster (Crassostrea virginica) extracts were determined using the Liebermann‐Burchard reagent, an acid‐FeCl3 reagent and a cholesterol oxidase procedure. The data from the latter two agreed to within 5.4% and yielded about 30% higher estimates of sterol content than the Liebermann‐Burchard test. Gas‐liquid chromatographic data also are compared.Several pure sterols, selected because of their presence in oyster sterol fractions or because of their structural similarities to such sterols, were examined using each of the three procedures. Sterols, differing from cholesterol only with regard to the side chain, reacted 80–102% as well as cholesterol with the acid‐FeCl3 reagent and cholesterol oxidase. The Liebermann‐Burchard reaction was more specific for cholesterol. The colorimetric cholesterol oxidase method is recommended for the estimation of total molluscan sterol content.