Gas Chromatographic Determination of the Monosaccharide Composition of Plant Cell Wall Preparations

Abstract

A simplified procedure is described for determining the monosaccharide composition of plant cell wall ("fiber") preparations. The preparations are hydrolyzed using a 2-stage sulfuric acid method. The monosaccharides released are rapidly reduced and acetylated to produce alditol acetates, which are separated by capillary gas chromatography. This procedure has been applied to the analysis of fiber preparations from a variety of animal feeds. The monosaccharide composition of the fiber preparations varied among feeds from different sources, indicating the usefulness of this method in characterizing fiber preparations in nutritional studies.