MODIFIED FLUORIMETRIC FLOW-INJECTION-ANALYSIS (FIA) METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF (1–3) (1–4)–B—D—GLUCAN

A simple system has been constructed for the quantitative determination of barley β-glucans. Measurements were made by the flow-injection-analysis (FIA) technique using the fluorescent dye Calcofluor as a specific reagent for (1·3) (1·4)–B—D—linkages. In this paper a single-line system is described involving only one pump samples of β-glucan being directly injected into the reagent stream. The reaction results in an increased intensity of fluorescence detected by a flow-through-cell fluorimeter and evaluated as peak heights or peak areas by a printer-plotter. The analysis is completed within 20s. The operational parameters were set during an optimization procedure.