A major problem in determining the composition of plant cell wall polysaccharides has been the lack of a suitable method for accurately determining the amounts of galacturonic and glucuronic acids in such polymers. A Two methods for the enzymatic determination of uronic acids have also been described. The first of these methods, employing an NADH-linked enzyme system from Bacillus polymyxa for the reduction of D-galacturonic acid, has been used for the quantitative determination of monomeric galacturonic acid in the presence of large amounts of galacturonic acid oligomers (40). An NAD-linked uronate dehydrogenase from Pseudomonas syringae has also been used for the determination of D-galacturonic acid (8, 9). In this case both D-galacturonic and D-glucuronic acids are oxidized, and what is determined is the sum of the concentrations of the two acids. Hence, it is impossible. by this method, to distinguish these two compounds, both of which are common constituents of plant polysaccharides.With the development of gas-liquid chromatography of carbohydrates (11, 23. 24, 61, 67), this powerful method became available for the quantitative analysis of monosaccharide mixtures (54). These techniques have been refined by a number of investigators to the point that the gas chromatographic analysis of the neutral sugar components of plant cell wall polysaccharides is accurate, efficient, and convenient (4, 13-16, 19, 26, 27, 29. 39, 47, 57, 59). Of the various techniques available, those involving the determination of neutral sugars following conversion to the corresponding alditol acetates (4, 13, 16, 59) have proven the most satisfactory for determining cell wall polysaccharide composition.The gas chromatographic determination of the uronic acids, the other major component of plant cell wall polysaccharides, has received less attention. Tamura and Imanari (28,62) have investigated a variety of glucuronide derivatives, and have concluded that the trimethylsilyl ethers are satisfactory for gas chromatographic analysis of such compounds. Other investigators have examined the gas chromatographic behavior of the trimethylsilyl ether derivatives of iduronic, glucuronic (34,35), and galacturonic (56) acids. Separation of the anomeric forms of uronic acids as trimethylsilyl derivative has also been explored (17. 30. 31, 50, 63, 70, 71). In addition, Raymond and Nagel (52) have demonstrated the feasibility of separating the trimethylsilyl derivatives of galacturonic acid oligomers by means of gas chromatography. A major disadvantage in the use of trimethylsilyl derivatives for cell wall polysaccharide analysis lies in the difficulty of achieving satisfactory separations of the derivatives of each of the aldoses and uronic acids found in plant cell walls. No gas chromatographic column material which permits such a separation is available at present.Another approach to hexuronic acid analysis has been presented by Perry and Hulyalkar (48) in which salts of the uronic acids are converted to aldono-1,4-lactones from which tr...