Books
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Carbohydrate Analysis: High Performance Liquid Chromatography and Capillary Electrophoresis Ziad El Rassi, Ed. Elsevier Science Publishers 655 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10010 1995, 692 pp., $265.75
This book will be very useful for anyone in terested in carbohydrate analysis, espe cially researchers and technicians in bio technology, medical research, biochemis try, and the pharmaceutical and foods industries. The objective of the book is to provide a comprehensive review of carbo hydrate analysis by HPLC and CE and to cover separation methods for all classes of carbohydrates. The first section of the book, which deals with the solute, reviews current methods of sample preparation for analy sis by HPLC and CE. Purification of vari ous types of carbohydrates, release of the carbohydrate from the sample, and fur ther degradation of polysaccharides by chemical and enzymatic methods are dis cussed. This is an excellent section; sam ple handling, which can be the most timeconsuming step in an analysis, is too often neglected or ignored in reviews and books. The second part of the book, dealing with analytical and preparative separa tions, describes the details of various modes of chromatography used in HPLC analysis of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates. The coverage in this section is somewhat uneven. The longest chapter on HPLC modes is about reversed-phase
and hydrophobic interaction, which is ap propriate because these modes are used most widely. On the other hand, affinity chromatography is covered in less depth in Chapter 6, and the discussion appears to be limited mainly to the author's own work. Chapter 8 is an excellent review of CE of carbohydrates and glycosylated compounds. It includes the fundamen tals of CE, CE modes, the electrophoretic system, and methodologies and applica tions. The last chapter in this section pre sents a review of semipreparative and pre parative HPLC methods for the isolation of carbohydrates. Detection of carbohydrates is dis cussed in the third section. Carbohydrates generally do not have UV-absorbing chromophores; therefore, low concentrations are not readily detected and the choice of an appropriate detection method is an im portant part of a carbohydrate analysis. These problems as well as the potential value of various detection methods are discussed in a thorough review. These chapters can be most helpful not only to those doing research on carbohydrates but also to researchers working with nonglycosylated compounds that do not contain a chromophore. They describe electrochemical refractive index, mass spectrometry, chiroptical and evaporative light scattering detectors as well as preand postcolumn derivatization, postcolumn enzyme reactors, and direct and in direct UV and fluorescence methods. The coverage is also uneven in this section, with short chapters on refractive index and chiroptical detectors. The references in these chapters are limited, and the review on chiroptical detectors is general and not oriented toward carbohydrates. On the other hand, the chapter on mass spec trometry is comprehensive and focuses on carbohydrate analysis. The editor, a well-known authority on carbohydrate and glycoconjugate analysis, has done an excellent job of organizing the book. There is little overlap in the ma terial, and the chapters are organized
718 A Analytical Chemistry, December 1, 1995
uniformly so that information is readily available from the table of contents or the index. For the most part, the chapters are well written and as uniform as a vol ume with contributed chapters can be. There is no author index, but there is a good subject index. The references in al most all the articles include 1993 refer ences, which are as recent as can be ex pected in a book of reviews published in 1995. This is an excellent book, and I recom mend it for everyone who deals with carbo hydrates and either wants an understand ing of the fundamentals of HPLC or CE analyses or needs practical information on the separation and quantitation of all classes of carbohydrates and glycosylated compounds. Reviewed by Phyllis R. Brown, Univer sity of Rhode Island
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Modern Practice of Gas Chromatography, 3rd ed. Robert L. Grab, Ed. John Wiley & Sons 605 Third Ave. New York, NY 10158 1995, 888 pp., $89.95
This text includes contributions from a number of authors, some of whom are new to this edition. As with the previous edi tions, the intent of this book is to present a fairly comprehensive view of GC using contributors who are specialists in the areas of GC they describe.
The contents are roughly divided into three parts on theory and basics, techniques and instrumentation, and applications. The first section includes discussions of column selection and optimization of separations. Chapters on detectors and data handling, GC/MS, qualitative and quantitative analysis, and inlet systems make up the section on techniques and instrumentation, and the applications section covers physicochemical measurements, petroleum and petrochemical analysis, polymer analysis, clinical applications, forensic applications, and environmental applications. As might be expected, the attempt to achieve such a broad objective within the confines of one book means that some entries are brief and details are lacking. It would have been helpful if some information had been presented with examples and worked-out problems rather than in the style of a review article. Except for the addition of some new authors and new chapters on GC/MS and applications in forensic science, there is not too much difference between this edition and its predecessor. However, the old "Drug Analysis" chapter has been replaced by one written from the forensic point of view, an excellent addition to the book but one that comes at the sacrifice of a fine chapter and the elimination of much useful information concerning good analytical method development procedures in the drug field. The former instrumentation section has been broken up into different chapters with very little updating of material from the previous edition. For example, modern constant resistance and constant resistance/constant current power supplies for thermal conductivity detectors are not discussed; the technique of linearizing and increasing the sensitivity of the flame photometric detector by doping with sulfur compounds is missing from this entry; and the sulfur chemiluminescence detector is not mentioned at all. Modern data handling of the chromatographic
signal is given short shrift in two small paragraphs. Computer-aided stationary phase selection, column design, and selection and optimization of temperature program conditions (all of which have been published in the chromatographic literature and are now commercially available) are not discussed. As the editor acknowledges, every person (and I am no exception) has his or her own idea concerning the importance and ways of presenting topics. Thus, no book will please everyone. I recommend this book primarily as a reference source for specific GC applications. Reviewed by Raymond Annino, North Smithfield, RI
ganic chemistry. The completely updated second edition covers recent developments in protein NMR, NMR imaging, 13C NMR, solid-state NMR, and NMR instrumentation. It takes a practical, nonmathematical approach and includes extensive references to the original literature as well as to reference articles.
Surface and Infrared and Raman Spectroscopy W. Suëtaka Plenum Press 233 Spring St. New York, NY 10013 1995, 270 pp., $59.50
This book is intended for scientists who are not necessarily spectroscopists but are working with IR and Raman spectroscopy to investigate the surfaces of practical materials. Chapter topics include IR external reflection spectroscopy, internal reflection spectroscopy, IR emission spectroscopy, surface Raman spectroscopy, and surface-enhanced Raman scattering. A subject index is included.
BOOKS RECEIVED Practical Gamma-Ray Spectrometry Gordon Gilmore and John Hemingway John Wiley & Sons 605 Third Ave. New York, NY 10158 1995, 314 pp., $96
According to the authors, this book is intended more as a workshop manual than as an academic treatise. It assumes no previous knowledge of nuclear science or instrumentation and provides a comprehensive discussion of gamma ray detection and spectral analysis procedures. The origin of gamma rays and the issue of quality control in gamma ray spectrometry are also covered.
NMR Spectroscopy, 2nd ed. Harald Günther John Wiley & Sons 605 Third Ave. New York, NY 10158 1995, 581 pp., $39.95 paper, $79.95 cloth
This book presents the principles of NMR spectroscopy and its applications to or-
Multidimensional NMR in Liquids: Basic Principles and Experimental Methods Frank J.M. van de Ven VCH 220 East 23rd St. New York, NY 10010 1995, 399 pp., $55
This book, intended for chemists, biochemists, and others interested in studying molecular structure and dynamics with NMR spectroscopy, provides a comprehensive overview of multidimensional NMR in liquids from basic principles to state-of-the-art 3-D and 4-D homonuclear and heteronuclear experiments. Separate theoretical sections are provided for readers interested in spin-quantum mechanics, and appendices provide theoretical background in linear algebra, quantum mechanics, and angular momentum.
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