Carbohydrates are next to nucleic acids and proteins the third important class of biopolymers and we are just beginning to understand their role in biological systems on a molecular level. In recent years, the post-translational modification of proteins has obtained increased interest. Specifically the glycosylation of enzymes, receptors and antibodies is the focus of numerous research porjects as it becomes clear that carbohydrates are involved in cellular communication and immuno recognition processes. In order ot understand this "sweet sugar language" and consequently use it in proteomics and the development of biopharmaceuticals, suitable analytical techniques have to be developed to separate carbohydrates with high selectivity in complex biological matrices and quantify them in in minute quantities.

The present monograph covers all aspects of carbohydrate analysis by Capillary Electrophoresis including instrumental aspects, derivatization for high sensitivity applications, separation conditions and applications in various fields and industries. It will be a valuable source of information for everyone involved in carbohydrate research in life sciences including glycobiology, biotechnology and immunology and in the food industry.

Carbohydrates are ubiquitous. They come as monomers, oligomers and polymers with a startling variety of chemical, physical and material properties. They affect almost every as- pect of human live. For example they are an essential part of our nutrition. Cellulose, a car- bohydrate polymer, acts as a central material in civilization: as building material for housing and as paper for written communication. Scientifically, the interest in carbohydrates ranges from structural elucidation of simple carbohydrates to fundamental biochemical processes such as photosynthesis and glycolysis. Always, a deeper understanding of a particular aspect of carbohydrate chemistry was accompanied by new methods of measuring and characteri- zing this class of molecules. During the last decades a better understanding of the roles of carbohydrates in biochemi- cal pathways developed. It turned out, that carbohydrates attached to proteins in glycoprote- ins are involved in a number of molecular recognition and targeting processes. This lead to a new research field: Glycobiology. However, unlike for proteins or nucleic acids, there is at this time no consistent theory how chemical composition and structure controls function and inherent information. In order to develop the database, on which new theories and scientific hypothesis are founded, analytical methods to separate compounds with an enormous struc- tural diversity and only minor differences in chemical or physical properties has to be deve- loped, preferably using only minute quantities.