Application of 2,3-naphthalenediamine in labeling natural carbohydrates for capillary electrophoresis

Neutral and acidic monosaccharide components in Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharide are readily labeled with 2,3-naphthalenediamine, and the resulting saccharide-naphthimidazole (NAIM) derivatives are quantified by capillary electrophoresis (CE) in borate buffer. Using sulfated-α-cyclodextrin as the chiral selector, enantiomers of monosaccharide-NAIMs are resolved on CE in phosphate buffer, allowing a simultaneous determination of the absolute configuration and sugar composition in the mucilage polysaccharide of a medicinal herb Dendrobium huoshanense. Together with the specific enzymatic reactions of various glycoside hydrolases on the NAIM derivatives of glycans, the structures of natural glycans can be deduced from the digestion products identified by CE analysis. Though heparin dissachrides could be successfully derived with the NAIM-labeling method, the heparin derivatives with the same degree of sulfation could not be separated by CE.