Amino sugar determination in organic soils by capillary gas chromatography using a nitrogen‐selective detector

A method is described for the analysis of amino sugars in humus layers by capillary gas liquid chromatography. After acid hydrolysis and reduction, amino sugar alcohols are baseline separated as their trifluoroacetates. Hexosamines are selectively detected using a nitrogen‐specific, flameless thermoionic detector and quantified with p‐aminophenol HCl as internal standard. This procedure is applied to determine the amino sugar contents and hence to characterize the relative role of fungi and bacteria in the decomposition process in a Lithic Borofolist.