Automatic procedure exploiting multicommutation in flow analysis for simultaneous spectrophotometric determination of nonstructural carbohydrates and reducing sugar in forage materials

A multicommutated flow procedure for simultaneous spectrophotometric determination of nonstructural carbohydrates and reducing sugar in forage materials is proposed. Determination of both analytes was based on the neucroine method after acid hydrolysis of nonstructural carbohydrates. Results for both analytes presented the following features: no significant difference at 90% confidence level when compared with reference method, linear response between 0.2 to 0.8% (w/v) (r = 0.999); relative standard deviations of < 2.0% (n = 10), and sampling rate of 32 determinations per hour.