FIELD: analytical methods. SUBSTANCE: invention, in particular, relates to determining carbohydrate-containing polymers and more specifically to determining barasane and gum in sweetened drinking water. Sample of water containing above-indicated impurities at a level of their maximum allowable concentrations is concentrated under vacuum in rotation evaporator. Resulting concentrate is introduced into upper part of chromatographic column filled by preliminarily treated sorbent, after which drinking water/acrylonitrile 1:4 mixture is passed through column and sample is treated on sorbent with acrylonitrile vapors for no more than 30 min. Sample is further dried by passing inert gas at 30 to 90 C until all volatiles are released. After that, column is connected to heat- conductivity sensible detector, hexane-benzene mixture is introduced in different zones of column through evaporator of gas chromatograph. Then, one measures retention time of hexane and benzene relative to air in each zone at constant thermostatically controlled temperature and determines retention volumes of hexane and benzene relative to air at specified gas carrier velocity between 5 and 40 ml/min. Barasane and guar gum are identified from ratio of benzene and hexane retention times and amounts of barasane and guar gum are found from dependence of benzene retention volume on its weight. EFFECT: increased determination accuracy. 2 tbl
