High-performance liquid chromatography of methanol released from pectins after its oxidation to formaldehyde and condensation with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine.

A procedure was developed to measure the content of methanol in pectins after the base-catalysed hydrolysis of galacturonic acid methyl esters and oxidation of released methanol with potassium permanganate followed by condensation of the resulting formaldehyde (HCHO) with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH) dissolved in acetonitrile. The constant yields of resultant formaldehyde 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazone (HCHO-DNPH derivative) were obtained at molar ratios of DNPH/HCHO higher than 5. The separation of the HCHO-DNPH derivative from DNPH reagent was achieved by isocratic reversed-phase HPLC equipped with the spectrophotometric detector set at a wavelength of 351 nm. The calibration curve was linear in the methanol concentration range between 0.04 and 15 micromol/ml (R=0.9995). The total recovery from pectin solutions spiked with methanol was equal to 100.6+/-5.1%.