Ultrasound-assisted analysis of total carbohydrates in environmental and food samples.

Analytical methods to determine total carbohydrates in environmental and food samples usually require a preliminary chemical hydrolytic procedure to convert polysaccharides into monosaccharides prior to detection by colorimetric or chromatographic techniques. In this paper, an alternative hydrolytic procedure is presented. The method for hydrolysis of polysaccharides is based on the application of ultrasound at room temperature. The advantages of the method proposed here are reduced time required for analysis (4-5 h) and the improvement of the analytical accuracy due to the absence of the most common reactions of oxidation. The proposed method was applied to the determination of total carbohydrates in several environmental samples (seawater and marine mucilage) and starchy food samples. Results for total carbohydrate obtained using the ultrasound procedure for hydrolysis of samples agreed with those found when applying other published procedures.