Separation and detection of sugars and alditols on thin layer chromatograms

A thin-layer chromatographic method has been developed to separate aldoses and their corresponding alditols. Two ascents of acetonitrile–ethyl acetate–1-propanol–water (85:20:20:15, v/v/v/v) at 20 °C on Whatman K6 plates were used. A dipping detection system using alkaline silver nitrate–sodium thiosulfate was used to detect the alditols in the 500 ng to 1 μg range. The aldoses and their corresponding alditols were d-glucose, d-glucitol, d-mannose, d-mannitol, d-galactose, galactitol, d-xylose, xylitol, d-ribose, ribitol, d-arabinose, d-arabinitol, maltose, and maltitol.