Polysaccharide identification through oligosaccharide fingerprinting.

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Food Science
• Carbohydrate Chemistry

Background:

• Identifying polysaccharide structures in complex food matrices is challenging due to the lack of specific analytical tools.
• Existing methods often struggle with polymeric mixtures, limiting detailed structural analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel method for the rapid identification and quantification of polysaccharides in food samples.
• To generate diagnostic oligosaccharide markers from depolymerized polysaccharides for precise analysis.

Main Methods:

• Depolymerization of polysaccharides to yield oligosaccharide fragments.
• Analysis of oligosaccharide markers using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (HPLC-QTOF MS).
• Comparison of identified oligosaccharides against a library of markers from standard polysaccharides.

Main Results:

• The method enables rapid identification of food polysaccharides by matching oligosaccharide markers.
• Quantitative analysis using percent peak coverage and angle cosine methods provided accurate contributions of identified polysaccharides.
• Validation with synthetic mixtures and high reproducibility (standard deviation < 3%) in butternut squash samples confirmed method reliability.

Conclusions:

• The developed HPLC-QTOF MS-based method offers a robust solution for identifying and quantifying polysaccharides in complex food samples.
• This approach facilitates detailed characterization of polysaccharide composition, advancing food analysis capabilities.