SEPARATION OF NEGATIVELY CHARGED CARBOHYDRATES BY CAPILLARY ELECTROPHORESIS

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) has recently emerged as a highly promis ing technique consuming an extremely small amount of sample and capabl e of the rapid, high-resolution separation, characterization, and quan titation of analytes. CE has been used for the separation of biopolyme rs, including acidic carbohydrates. Since CE is basically an analytica l method for ions, acidic carbohydrates that give anions in weakly aci d, neutral, or alkaline media are often the direct objects of this met hod. The scope of this review is limited to the use of CE for the anal ysis of carbohydrates containing carboxylate, sulfate, and phosphate g roups as well as neutral carbohydrates that have been derivatized to i ncorporate strongly acidic functionality, such as sulfonate groups.