chemical that would react with ribitol phosphate.

Question

i am a microbiologist, and i have a question from chemistry. i would like to know what are the possible kind of chemicals that would react with ribitol phosphate and result in a colour change or any visible reaction. it is a pentose sugar , polyol. so can its presence be indicated by using a chemical?

Answer 1

The standard test for alcohols is the reaction with chromic acid that would turn from yellow to green when reduced to Cr (III). I doubt there'e a specific test for your compound. You could also use various staining techniques (http://www.ochemonline.com/TLC_stains). The vanillin one is particularly colorful, so it might be of a better use.