Separation and Quantitation of Plant and Insect Carbohydrate Isomers Found on the Surface of Cotton

Certain levels of the carbohydrates melezitose and trehalulose deposited on cotton surfaces are indicative of either whitefly or aphid contamination, which may cause problems during cotton processing. Raffinose and sucrose are isomers of melezitose and trehalulose, respectively, making it difficult to fully separate them via ion chromatography (IC), especially when analysis time is shortened. We have successfully developed an IC method to separate the retention peaks of melezitose from raffinose and trehalulose from sucrose, with baseline resolution and improved quantitation of these sugars. This improved separation may elucidate useful information about constituent sugars on cotton, aiding in the identification of carbohydrates possibly contributing to stickiness.