Phenol-sulphuric acid assay for cellulose

[artery]

Hi guys,

 

I'm trying to measure the concentration of cellulose in a sample. I know phenol-sulphuric acid assay is used for measuring common carbohydrates, but I'm not sure if the method will work for cellulose too. Hopefully I can find some comments here.

 

Thanks.

[hypervalent_iodine]

Could you be more specific about the nature of your sample? How you would do that may vary with the matrix the cellulose is in. I am not familiar with the assay that you have mentioned, but having read briefly up on it (there are plenty of papers on it if you look it up on Google), I can say that it is compatible with polysaccharides and so it should work with cellulose.

 

Edit: You could read this http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-4419-1463-7_6

[artery]

My sample will be the faecal material of an insect. I will be feeding it with cellulose and see if it can digest that polysaccharide. Yup, plenty of papers mentioned the acid will break down the bonds of polysaccharides, but I would like some confirmation before I get the phenol and sulphuric acid. And thanks for the link to the laboratory manual. It is a great reference.