High-performance liquid chromatographic determination of chitin in the snow crab, Chionoecetes opilio

A HPLC method was developed for the determination of glucosamine in crab shells. The amount of glucosamine residue can be used to estimate the amount of chitin in analyzed material. Crab samples were hydrolysed with 6 M HCl at 100 °C for 13 h and the released glucosamine was determined by HPLC using refractive index (RI) detection. Separations were performed using an ODS-2 column with an isocratic mobile phase consisting of 10% methanol, 90% hexanesulfonate, pH 2.1. Glucosamine identification was carried out not only on basis of retention time, but also with respect to mass spectra, which were acquired by HPLC–MS.