A high performance liquid chromatographic method for the fluorimetric determination of lactose, galactose and glucose in normal and abnormal milk of cows.

A high performance, liquid chromatographic, gradient method with post-column derivatization and highly sensitive fluorescence detection has been developed for the determination of reducing sugars, such as lactose, galactose and glucose, in normal and abnormal milk of cows. The method requires little sample preparation, is applicable to a fully automated HPLC system and has been found suitable for the processing of hundreds of samples. Peaks of minor constituent components of samples showed retention times identical with those of ribose, cellobiose, fucose, mannose and xylose. Further research with the HPLC technique, supplemented with modern gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, is considered necessary for elucidating the role of minor carbohydrates in the physiology and physiopathology of the bovine udder.