Ultrasound-assisted analysis of total carbohydrates in environmental and food samples

Analytical methods to determine total carbohydrates in environmental and fo od samples usually require a preliminary chemical hydrolytic procedure to c onvert polysaccharides into monosaccharides prior to detection by colorimet ric or chromatographic techniques. In this paper, an alternative hydrolytic procedure is presented. The method for hydrolysis of polysaccharides is ba sed on the application of ultrasound at room temperature. The advantages of the method proposed here are reduced time required for analysis (4-5 h) an d the improvement of the analytical accuracy due to the absence of the most common reactions of oxidation. The proposed method was applied to the dete rmination of total carbohydrates in several environmental samples (seawater and marine mucilage) and starchy food samples. Results for total carbohydr ate obtained using the ultrasound procedure for hydrolysis of samples agree d with those found when applying other published procedures. (C) 1999 Elsev ier Science B.V. All rights reserved.