| MadSci Network: Chemistry |
Mr. Allen, You have asked a question that does't have a simple answer based on the equipment you have avialable for analysis. The easiest method to determine sucrose content would be to extract the spice blend with 65-80% ethanol and than determine the sucrose content by High Performance Liquid Chromatography with a Refractive Index Detector. One method you might try would be to extract your spice blend with deionized water, filter and measure the percent soluble solids with your refractometer. You would need to correct for the percent salt in the blend since this will contribute to the soluble solids content. Assuming the amount of sodium glutamate and other water extractives are small while the sucrose content is significantly higher this would give you an approixmation of the sucrose content in the blend. There are colrimetric methods for measuring sucrose, but they would require hydrolsis to monosachrides and/or enzyme linked assays.One company does manufacutre kits for the UV determination of mono- & disaccarides in foodstuffs. The company is Boehringer Mannheim Biochemicals which is located in Indianapolis, IN (address - 7941 Castleway Drive, P.O. Box 50816, Indianapolis, IN 46250). These are not simple and can require consiberable time. I hope you find this response of some assistance. Al Bushway Professor of Food Science
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