Determination of 25 Low Molecular Weight Carbohydrates in Tobacco by High Performance Ion Chromatography

A High Performance Ion Chromatographic method for the qualitative and quantitative determination of low molecular weight carbohydrates in tobacco leaf is described. The carbohydrates were separated by running isocratic or gradient elutions on columns packed with amino-modified polystyrene divinylbenzene phases, using 0.1 N NaOH as eluent. The compounds were detected by a Pulsed Amperometric Detector, after post-column addition of 1 N NaOH solution. Twenty-two and twenty-four carbohydrates out of twenty-five were separated by isocratic and gradient elution, respectively. Some mono and disaccharides were identified in tobacco samples by their retention times and some quantitative determinations of glucose, fructose, inositol and saccharose were carried out using different varieties of tobacco.