Carbohydrate analysis by ion chromatography

Analysis of Sugar, Honey and Sweets How sweet is sweet? Carbohydrates from starch to saccharides.

About 40 to 75 % of our energy demand is covered by taking up carbohydrates.

More than half of the carbohydrates we are eating are starch.

Monosaccharides are the simplest sugars known which cannot be hydrolyzed to obtain smaller molecules.

The base units are: * Glucose (grape sugar, dextrose) is found in honey, fruits, corn syrup, sweet grapes etc * Fructose (fruit sugar) can be found in ripe fruits, some vegetables and honey.

* Galactose is not found as a free unit in nature but is obtained by hydrolyzing lactose.

As they are containing a terminal aldehyde group, glucose and galactose belong to the group of aldoses.

Fructose contains a terminal ketone group and is therefore part of the group of ketoses.

Oligosaccharides are made up of 2 to10 sugar units while polysaccharides consist of more than 10 sugar units linked together.

Sugars containing either aldehyde (aldoses), ketone (ketoses) or hemiacetal groups can be oxidized and are classified as reducing sugars.

Examples of reducing sugars are: glucose, maltose and lactose.

In basic milieu, the interconversion of ketoses and aldoses is facilitated.

Therefore fructose, which is a ketose, can also be oxidized and is therefore a reducing sugar.

Carbohydrates can also contain small traces of heavy metals as Fe, Zn, Pb and Cu which can perfectly be detected by voltammetry.

Metrohm offers a wide range of instruments for sugar and carbohydrate analysis by ion chromatography, potentiometric or Karl Fischer titration and voltammetry, e.g Metrohm's 817 Bioscan is a great tool for doing carbohydrate analysis by ion chromatography.

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