Monitoring of carbohydrates with periodate in effluents from high-pressure liquid chromatography columns.

Application of periodate to monitoring of carbohydrates in effluents from borate anion-exchange columns is described. The effect of temperature to speed the reaction in a postcolumn reactor was investigated at pH 5.0 and 8.6. The alkaline conditions increase sensitivity for some carbohydrates due to overoxidation. Temperatures up to 100 degrees C may be employed to detect less reactive sugars such as cyclitols. Peaks are detected by an absorbance decrease at 260 nm with a high-pressure liquid chromatography detector. The reagent permits detection of a wide variety of carbohydrates, aldoses, ketoses, alditols, cyclitols, and oligosaccharides with sensitivities of less than 1 nmol.