Selection of an extraction and purification method for the determination of soluble sugars and starch in woody vine tissues

Abstract

Soluble sugars and starch dosing from wood and root of vine is important to quantify the carbon contained in the plant. Different extraction and dosing methods do exist for each kind of sugar. Each of them has some advantages and inconvenients. Some solvents are very efficient for dosing soluble sugars but give some inhibitions when dosing ; others are toxic and carcinogenic. The solvents that do not inhib the dosing of soluble sugars involve starch loose which is the main form of sugar stocking in the plant. This study allows to compare several soluble sugar extraction solvents (ethanol, mix ethanol-water and only water) on wood and roots of the vine. For the samples extracted by the ethanol-water solvent, different purification techniques were tested (filtration, adding of PVP and / or chloroform) in order to find the easiest, the rapidest and the best fitted method adapted for our samples and our dosing method. To conclude, the ethanol-water extraction followed by a purification with PVP adding was the best method to dose soluble sugars without starch loose in the woods and roots of vine.