Chromatography Forum

Hi,

Perhaps before I start I should mention that I am an ecologist and no chemist, so would ask you patience in dealing with what are probably very simple questions.

I want to characterise DOC from marine macro algae. I have found a method for determining neutral sugars using GC-FID where the carbohydrates were converted to acetyl derivatives using what seems to an extremely complicate procedure (Handa and Yanagi Marine Biology 4 1969). I was wondering if GC-FID was the best way to go with this or if there are other alternatives ?

Any advice would be warmly welcomed.

Cheers
Adam

I have done alditol acetate derivatization of sugars for analysis from bacterial polysaccharides on a DB-5 30 M column (been a while for me - trying to remember the details). Basically, reduce with sodium borohydride, acetylate with acetic anhydride and 1-methyl imidazole. Add water to break down excess acetic anhydride the extract with 1,2-dichloroethane. We used myo-inositol as an internal standard. We had baseline resolution of all the sugars we could analyze at the time.

TMS-derivatization is another way to go, also.