A novel enzymic determination of maltose

A novel enzymic determination of maltose with four enzymes (a new enzyme, maltose 1-epimerase [EC 5.1.3.-], maltose phosphorylase [EC 2.4.1.8], beta-phosphoglucomutase [EC 5.4.2.6], and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase [EC 1.1.1.49]) is described. Maltose was rapidly and quantitatively determined within about 2 min by means of maltose 1-epimerase. The standard curve was linear up to 1.5 micromol/mL. The within-run and between-run studies gave precision (CV) values of < 2.0% and < 3.0%, respectively. No significant interferences by mono- and disaccharides were observed with the proposed method under this study. There was a good correlation (r = 0.997) between the results obtained by the enzymic and HPLC methods. This method fulfills the need for an accurate, specific and simple assay of maltose, and it is less time consuming than HPLC and enzymic methods previously reported.