Oxidation of mannosyl oligosaccharides by hydroxyl radicals as assessed by electrospray mass spectrometry.

The hydroxyl radicals are widely implicated in oxidation of carbohydrates during biological and industrial processes being responsible for their structural modifications and causing functional damage. The identification of intermediate oxidation products is hampered by a lack of reliable sensible methods for their detection. In this study, the oxidation of two models of galactomannans (Man(3) and GalMan(2)) has been studied in reaction with hydroxyl radical generated by Fenton reaction.