A fluorometric determination method for D,L configurations of per-O-methylated monosaccharides by anomeric 2-methyl-2-beta-naphthyl-1,3-benzodioxole 4-carboxylation and high-performance liquid chromatography.

Per-O-methylated pentopyranoses and hexopyranoses were converted to their glycosyl chlorides and coupled with cesium salt of fluorescent chiral derivatization reagent, (+)-2-methyl-2-beta-naphthyl-1,3-benzodioxole-4-carboxylic acid [(+)-MND carboxylic acid], to afford their 1-O-(+)-MNB carboxylates. The D,L enantiomers were separated by normal-phase HPLC and determined at the picomolar level, and this methodology could be extended to the highly sensitive simultaneous determination of per-O-methylated monosaccharides.