The contents were filtered under vacuum employing Whatman 1004-110 filter paper.
Individual sugars in the filtrate were determined with an Agilent 1100 high pressure liquid chromatograph, an Agilent 1200 refractive index detector, a Zorbax NH2, 25 cm long, 4.6mm internal diameter column, employing acetonitrile in water (70–30), as the solvent phase.