English Abstract This paper has been written to give the reader a review
of extraction, purification, fractionation and characterization techniques
available for soil organic matter characterization. The review is divided
into chapters on each of the techniques mentioned. As far as extraction
techniques are concerned there are two categories: bulk extractions and
sequential extraction methods. A humin extraction method was also found.
Purification methods are numerous and it seems that purification is always
necessary to make functional groups accessible to the reagents used in
subsequent characterization steps. Fractionation techniques are all more or
less based on the chromatography principle and can be divided into the
following categories: fractionation based on differences in molecular size,
chemical properties, and mobility in electrical fields. In the field of
characterization techniques two divisions can be made: spectroscopial
methods (E4/E6 ratio, PYGCMS, IR, NMR etc.) and chemical methods
(functional group titration). In the end a chapter on applications in the
field of interactions of pesticides with soil organic matter has been
written. From the literature it appeared that there is not a generally
accepted standard characterization method.
