An alternative approach for quantification of glyceraldehyde and dihydroxyacetone as trimethylsilyl derivatives by GC-FID.

A method for quantification of glyceraldehyde (GA), dihydroxyacetone (DHA) and glycerol (GLY) by gas chromatography coupled to a flame ionization detector (GC-FID) involving one-step derivatization into trimethylsilyl ethers is presented. In pyridine, DHA and GA showed predominant peaks assigned to dimeric structures and smaller peaks corresponding to the monomers. The later were identified by GC-MS as their completely derivatized molecules and were useful for construction of calibration curves with high linear correlation.