Highly sensitive ligand exchange chromatographic determination of apiose in plant biomass

Apiose is an unusual branched-chain pentose monosaccharide which does not occur naturally in a free form and included in the structure of some pectins and apioglycosides possessing high biological activity and having significant potential for use in pharmacology and cosmetic industry. The control of the chemical composition of plant raw materials and related products requires reliable analytical methods for determining apiose. In the present study a ligand exchange chromatography on a stationary phase bearing lead cations in combination with post-column derivatization by L-arginine and fluorescence detection was proposed for the highly sensitive and selective quantification of apiose. The optimized sample preparation procedure involves microscale two-stage hydrolysis with 72% and 0.5 M sulfuric acid at 30 ? and 100 ?, respectively. The developed and validated simple, robust and low-cost analytical method ensures limit of detection of 15 mu g L-1 in liquid samples and 5 mu g g(-1 )in plant material with a linear range comprising up to four orders of magnitude. It was successfully tested in the analyses of pharmaceutical preparations of the eelgrass pectins, parsley and fireweed biomass.

Automated summary

Apiose is an unusual branched-chain pentose monosaccharide that does not naturally occur in a free form, but is included in the structure of certain pectins and apioglycosides. It possesses high biological activity and has significant potential for use in pharmacology and the cosmetic industry. In this study, a new analytical method using ligand exchange chromatography and post-column derivatization with L-arginine and fluorescence detection was developed for the quantification of apiose. The method showed high sensitivity and selectivity, and was successfully applied to the analyses of pharmaceutical preparations and plant materials.