Sugars estimation general properties

Colorimetric Methods. The most frequently used colorimetric methods have been recently reviewed by Omaye et al. (5). Several methods of analyses are based upon the fact that ascorbic acid and dehydroascorbic acid possess certain chemical properties characteristic of sugars such as formation of osazones and conversion to furfural. Colorimetric determination of furfural, an aniline derivative, has been used to a limited extent for the estimation of ascorbic acid in certain materials. These methods have generally been found to be unsatisfactory... 

The estimation of nucleic acids takes advantage of more or less specific reactions or properties of the organic bases, pentoses, and phosphate, which are generally considered to exist in equimolar proportions in the parent molecules. It has become customary to estimate the bases by ultraviolet spectrophotometry (although specific chemical reactions are known), the sugars by the colorimetric reactions of pentose with orcinol and of desoxypentose with diphenylamine and other compounds, and the phosphate by the well-known Fiske and Subbarow reaction. Tissues or... 

---