title: Analysis of the monosaccharide composition of purified polysaccharides in Ganoderma atrum by capillary gas chromatography.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Ganoderma, one of the best-known traditional Chinese medicines, has attracted considerable attention owing to the fact that dozens of polysaccharides isolated from it have shown diverse and potentially significant pharmacological activities. However, no work has been reported on the analysis of monosaccharide composition of polysaccharide isolated from the aqueous extract of Ganoderma atrum yet.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To develop a simple and sensitive GC-based method for the analysis of monosaccharide composition of purified polysaccharides in Ganoderma atrum.
  
  
  METHODS
  The polysaccharide was first hydrolysed to give the constituent monosaccharides, which were subsequently derived into acetylated aldononitriles and analysed by gas chromatography using a capillary column packed with a (5%phenyl) methylpolysiloxane stationary phase with the addition of acetyl inositol as the inner standard. High-performance liquid chromatography was also used for comparison.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The stable derivatives of the most common monosaccharides could be separated and reproducibly determined with high sensitivity. The limits of detection and quantification were 0.013 and 0.043 mg/mL, respectively. The intermediary precision values (expressed as the RSD) were less than 10%. The mean recovery of the method was 100 + or - 3%, with RSD values of less than 5%. The results obtained from GC and HPLC methods were found to be close to each other within acceptable error ranges.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrated that the developed method could be applied as an accurate method for the compositional analysis of monosaccharides in the field of biological and biochemical study.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330047, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ming-Yong
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Yuan-Xing
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Shao-Ping
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Nie
authors.forename: Chang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D002849:Chromatography, Gas / Q000379:methods*; D032902:Ganoderma / Q000737:chemistry*; D057230:Limit of Detection; D009005:Monosaccharides / Q000032:analysis*; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D009005:Monosaccharides; D011134:Polysaccharides