Methylation analysis as a tool for structural analysis of wood polysaccharides

In modern structural analysis of complex mixtures of wood polysaccharides, methylation analysis is still a valuable and powerful tool for linkage analysis. In this paper, methylation analysis is described for the procedure methylation, methanolysis, silylation and GC/MS. The retention time indexes for the partly methylated methyl glycosides of the relevant wood polysaccharides are listed together with the ratios of the isomers of the different structural units. A calculation model for relative molar response factors is suggested based on a published model for FID detection and on experimental data. Tested for oligosaccharides of known structure including xylotetraose, mannotriose and 6(3),6(4)-alpha-D-galactosyl-mannopentaose, the model gives reproducible and sufficiently correct results. The fate of xylose units substituted with 4-O-methyl glucuronic acid at position 2 is investigated with a model compound.