Determination of the degrees of methylation and acetylation of pectins using a C18 column and internal standards

An improved hplc method for the simultaneous determination of the degrees of methylation and acetylation of pectins has been developed. The proposed method involves saponification in heterogeneous medium followed by the separation of methanol, acetic acid and internal standard on a C18 column and quantification by refractometry. The method is reproducible, accurate, and presents several advantages that are discussed in the present paper.