Abstract:

A high performance gel permeation chromatography (HPGPC) method was developed for the determination of relative molecular mass of inulin. Separation was performed on a GPC column with triple distilled water as a mobile phase at the flow rate of 0.8 ml/min and 30℃ and determination was carried out using a refractive index detector. A direct linear relationship within the range of 1.0×103－2.5×105 of relative molecular mass (r = 0.9894) was found between retention time of dextranum and lgMw. Insulins obtained from jerusalem artichoke by hot water reflux method and ultrasonic-assisted and microwave-assisted water extraction methods possessed varying relative molecular mass of 3500, 2405 and 3864, respectively. Methodology evaluation experiments revealed that the RSDs for precision, repeatability and stability were 0.24%, 0.21%, and 0.38%, respecitively, and the relative error for accuracy was around 0.4%. This method is proved to be fast, simple, sensible and repeatable.

Key words: inulin, HPGPC, relative molecular mass, determination