Simultaneous analyses of neutral carbohydrates and amino sugars in freshwaters with HPLC-PAD

In this study, we determine concentrations of neutral and amino sugars and a sugar alcohol in freshwaters using high-performance liquid chromatography and pulsed amperometric detection with a single isocratic analysis. Coeluting arabinose, galactosamine, and mannosamine are separated with a mobile phase of 22.8 mM NaOH-KOH at a temperature of 17 degrees C. The resolutions are 0.73 and 0.64, respectively. The method separates closely eluting glucose-mannose and mannose-xylose peaks with resolutions of 0.85 and 0.71. Other sugars, fucose, rhamnose, galactose, fructose, ribose, glucosamine, and mannitol are resolved completely. Arabinose and galactosamine are measured in stream, ground, and soil waters that contain dissolved total saccharide (DTS) concentrations of 527 to 1555 nM. Failure to distinguish galactosamine from arabinose in those samples results in a 53-82% overestimation of arabinose concentrations and a 1.8-6.5% overestimation of DTS concentrations. The near unity of glucosamine and galactosamine concentrations in stream water samples allows us to suggest a correction factor for historical samples that had been analyzed without resolving galactosamine and arabinose.