Current Analytical Methods for Qualitative and Quantitative Measurement of D-Xylitol

D-xylitol is a naturally-occurring five-carbon sugar alcohol. It can also be derived from the chemical reduction of D-xylose. It is widely used in recent years and will continue to be used as a food additive and sweetening agent in the food industry. The qualitative detection and quantification of D-xylitol in the presence of other sugars and sugar alcohols in fruits, vegetables and other natural sources is essential for industry production. A number of analytical methods have been developed over the years for qualitative detection and quantitative measurement of D-xylitol. Since most samples to be analyzed contain a mixture of compounds, highly efficient and sensitive analytical methods for D-xylitol in the mixture are required. Current analytical methods are usually comprised of two components: (1) an efficient separation unit, and (2) a structure identification unit. In this chapter, we provide an overview on these analytical methods used for the qualitative and quantitative determination of D-xylitol in samples from various sources. Chromatography-based techniques including GC, HPLC and CE methods with different detection options, such as UV, RI, ELS, etc., have been widely used. More advanced analytical instruments derived from hyphenation of Z. Jiang College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310029, People’s Republic of China S. Amartey Division of Biology, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, South Kensington, London SW7 2AZ, UK Z.-H. Jiang Department of Chemistry, Lakehead University, 955 Oliver Road, Thunder Bay, ON P7B 5E1, Canada W. Qin (&) Department of Biology & Biorefining Research Institute, Lakehead University, 955 Oliver Road, Thunder Bay, ON P7B 5E1, Canada e-mail: [email protected] S. S. da Silva and A. K. Chandel (eds.), D-Xylitol, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-31887-0_11, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012 245 chromatography with structure determination tools such as MS and NMR are becoming more and more accessible. The GC–MS, LC–MS and LC–MS/MS have now become routine methods for D-xylitol measurement. The coupling of spectroscopic methods such as NMR and MS to the chromatography methods can also provide structural information of the compounds being analyzed. Other methods such as the immunoassay and enzymatic assay methods are also discussed.