Qualitative and quantitative analysis of reducing carbohydrates by radiochromatography on ion-exchange papers

A highly specific method for qualitative and quantitative analysis of reducing carbohydrates has been described. The method involves the measurement of the amount of tritium found in [ 3 H]sodium borohydridereduced sugars following their paper chromatographic separation on ion-exchange papers. These procedures may be used to quantitate all of those components in 5 μl of a mixture which are present in amounts ranging from 0.1 to 10,000 nmoles. The quantitation gives approximately 10% accuracy at the lower end of the sensitivity range.