An ultraviolet-spectrophotometric method with 2-cyanoacetamide for the determination of the enzymatic degradation of reducing polysaccharides

✍ Scribed by Elke Bach; Eckhard Schollmeyer

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 354 KB
• Volume: 203
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-2697
• DOI: 10.1016/0003-2697(92)90321-w

✦ Synopsis

A rapid, facile, and sensitive uv-spectrophotometric assay has been developed for the determination of the enzymatic degradation of polysaccharides that generates reducing sugars. The assay was carried out with 2-cyanoacetamide in a single test tube. The solution was left at pH 9 by the addition of borate buffer within 5 min. Measurement of the reaction mixture at 274 nm allows a simple determination up to 600 mumol/liter of reducing sugars. The coefficient of variation was less than 2% on all measurements. The assay was developed with pectin and polygalacturonic acid from apples and has been compared with the Somogyi-Nelson method. The new assay was then exemplarily used for the determination of the enzymatic hydrolysis products of pectin from cotton.