Studies on Carbohydrates in the Body Fluids

Abstract

Standard biochemical methods for the determination of simple sugars in biological fluids depend on the chemical reduction of alkaline copper solutions by the sugar present. They give no indication of the qualitative differences between reducing sugars, nor do they indicate the presence of a nonreducing sugar, such as sucrose, nor that the reducing substance is a sugar. The frequent occurrence of reducing sbstances in the urine and the need to identify nondextrose sugars in the blood have prompted the use of paper chromatography as a means of qualitatively identifying the sugars present in the body fluids.¹The commonly used methods of fermentation and biochemical color reactions lack the specificity of chromatography. This presentation will describe the methods and their application in the identification of simple sugars in the blood, urine, and breast milk. Kowkabany²and Isherwood³have described the many techniques, solvent systems, and spray reagents useful