Composition of the capsular polysaccharides of Clostridium perfringens as a basis for their classification by chemotypes.

An analytical procedure, using gas-liquid chromatography, was developed for the identification of the per(trimethylsilyl) ethers of the constituent monosaccharides obtained from the capsular polysaccharides of Clostridium perfringens Hobbs 5, Hobbs 9, Hobbs 10, and NCTC 10578. Qualitative and quantitative differences between the major polysaccharide components enabled the differentiation of the four strains of C. perfringens investigated.