Simple column-switching ion chromatography method for determining eight monosaccharides and oligosaccharides in honeydew and nectar

Honeydew is excreted by aphids as a sweet waste and nectar is floral honey. Honeydew and nectar are complicated samples which consist of various sugars and amino acids. In this work, a simple ion chromatography with column-switching method was developed for the simultaneous analysis of 8 monosaccharides and oligosaccharides in honeydew and nectar. A reversed-phase column was used as a pretreatment column to eliminate organics on-line and sugars were eluted from a collection loop to analytical column by using column-switching technique. This method showed good linearity (r ⩾ 0.9994) and afforded low limits of detection ranging from 1.55 to 10.17 μg L−1 for all the analytes. Recoveries ranged from 95% to 105% and repeatability results were acceptable with relative standard deviation of less than 3.21% (n = 6). This method was successfully applied to quantification of these sugars in honeydew and nectar. These results showed honeydew had much more oligosaccharides than nectar.