Analysis of compositional carbohydrates in polysaccharides and foods by capillary zone electrophoresis

A simple, sensitive and specific analytical method has been established for high efficient separation and simultaneously high sensitive determination of thirteen reducing carbohydrates, including aldohexose and aldopentoses as well as maltose and lactose. Reducing carbohydrates were derivatized with 1-phenyl-3-methyl-5-pyrazolone (PMP), separated by capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) with use of methanol modifier in 175 mM borate buffer (pH 11.0), and detected by UV at 245 nm. The optimized CZE method was found to be well suited to examine the compositional reducing monosaccharides of the isolated polysaccharides from Lycopus lucidus and Jujube, and free mono- and disaccharides in beer and milk. Quantitative recoveries of the compositional carbohydrates in the samples were in the range of 93.2–104.0%, and RSD values ranged from 2.9% to 4.9%. The developed CZE method proves to be precise and practical for quality control of reducing carbohydrates, and will provide more highly efficient separation in food analysis in the future.