Determination of reducing end sugar residues in oligo- and polysaccharides by gas–liquid chromatography

Reducing end sugar residues in maltodextrins and arabinoxylans are determined as alditol acetates by gas–liquid chromatography following reduction, acid hydrolysis and acetylation of the samples. After this conversion to alditol acetates, the reducing end sugars are thus separated from their acetylated aldose counterparts. The method allows to identify individual reducing end sugars quantitatively and is a good alternative for colorimetric reducing sugar assays and 1H-NMR analysis. To demonstrate the advantages of the method, an application in a study of enzymic solubilisation and degradation of water unextractable arabinoxylan from a flour squeegee fraction is described.