Separation and quantitative determination of aldoses and alditols by over-pressured layer chromatography (OPLC)

Abstract

A new OPLC method has been established for separation and quantitative determination of three alditols (d -xylitol, l -arabitol, and d -glucitol) and four aldoses (d -xylose, l -arabinose, d -glucose, and l -rhamnose). The aldoses are present in hemicellulose hydrolyzates used as substrates in the production of d -xylitol from d -xylose by yeast, and all seven sugars could be found in the final fermented broth. The separation was performed in approximately sixteen minutes, on aluminum foil-backed silica gel OPLC-HPTLC plates with overrunning elution. Acetonitrile-acetic acid-water, 63 + 33 + 5 ( v/v ), was used as mobile phase. The upper limits of linearity were in the range 140–600 ng and detection limits were 15–50 ng per spot. The method has been used successfully to screen fermentation samples for aldoses and alditols.