Fractionation and identification of commercial hydrocolloid stabilising agents

Abstract

A rapid, simple procedure is described for the separation and identification of the individual components of a mixture of common stabilisers, including agar, alginate, gum arabic, carrageenan, carboxymethylcellulose , methylcellulose, pectate, pectinate, gum tragacanth, guar gum and locust bean gum. Separation of the anionic stabilisers from the neutral stabilisers is effected initially by precipitation with cetylpyridinium chloride. Complete fractionation of the two major groups is then performed by using selective precipitation techniques. Reliable confirmatory tests are reported for all the stabilisers.

New Method of DNA Isolation from Two Food Additives Suitable for Authentication in Polymerase Chain Reaction Assays

“…The analytical discrimination between both gums is particularly problematic since their structure is basically the same, only differing in their galactose:mannose ratios, being 1:4 and 1:2 for locust bean gum and guar gum, respectively (1). Several chemical and physical methods have been used to identify and quantify these additives, based on the detection of the galactose: mannose ratio, including electrophoresis and gas-liquid chromatography (2). However, and depending on the origin and supplier of the samples, variations in the degree of substitution of the mannan chain have been described (3,4).…”

Polysaccharides

“…precipitation reactions [15], or a special analytical procedure is used to separate anionic polysaccharides from neutral polysaccharides by precipitation with cetylpyridinium chloride [16], [17]. When the necessary equipment is available, quantitative analysis, based on the gas chromatographic determination of the constituent sugar moieties after hydrolysis and derivatization of the purified polysaccharide is often quicker and more reliable [29].…”