Introduction
Human bodies contains iron in the red blood cells (as hemoglobin) or in muscle cells (as part of myoglobin). Both proteins are necessary for oxygen transport. Thus, iron is an essential nutrient. In case of iron deficiency, complexes of a polysaccharide and iron are applied as drugs to enhance low iron levels. Suitable characterization of these complexes and their formulations are mandatory for regulatory reasons, quality control and research.
GPC/SEC provides an easy and effective way to measure the molar mass distributions of iron polysaccharide complexes. In the present investigation, iron polysaccharide complexes from different sources were analyzed on a GPC/SEC system with simultaneous UV/RIdetection.
An advantage of this application is that the iron polysaccharide complex is selectively detected by the UV-detector operated at 254 nm. The more universal RI-detector detects the complex, unbound polysaccharide and the typical and unavoidable system peaks. Interestingly, this possibility of selective detection of the iron complex by UV is frequently ignored. Instead evaluation of the more complex RI-trace is performed in most of the studies. However for this application the UV-traces were used to measure the molar mass distributions, molar mass averages and polydispersities of the iron polysaccharide complexes, while for an in-depth characterization with respect to unbound polysaccharide the RI detector signal was used.
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