1.2 General Properties,
Occurrence, and Preparation
of Carbohydrates
John F. Robyt
Laboratory of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Enzymology, Department
of Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology, 4252 Molecular Biology
Building, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA
jrobyt@iastate.edu
1
General Properties and Occurrence of Carbohydrates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
2
Carbohydrate Property of Optical Rotation of Plane Polarized Light . . . . . . . . 60
3
The Structures of Carbohydrates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.1
The Simplest Carbohydrates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.2
Analogues of D-Glyceraldehyde . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.3
The Formation of Carbohydrates Containing More than Three Carbons . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.4
Special Properties of Pentoses and Hexoses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.5
D-Glucose: the Most Prominent Carbohydrate on the Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.6
Occurrence of D-Erythrose, D-Ribose, and D-Xylose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.7
Occurrence of Hexoses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4
Properties and Occurrence of D-Glucose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.1
D-Glucose in the Free State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.2
D-Glucose in the Combined State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.2.1 Occurrence of D-Glucose Combined with D-Fructose, D-Galactose,
and D-Glucose, and High-Energy D-Glucose Donors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.2.2 Properties and Occurrence of Sucrose
and Sucrose Oligosaccharides Containing D-Galactose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.2.3 Properties and Occurrence of D-Glucose Combined
with D-Galactose to Give Lactose and Higher Oligosaccharides. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.2.4 Properties and Occurrence of α-D-Glucose
Combined with α-D-Glucose to Give α,α-Trehalose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5
Properties and Occurrence of D-Glucose
in Polysaccharides and Cyclodextrins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.1
Properties and Occurrence of Starch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.2
Properties and Occurrence of Glycogen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.3
Properties and Occurrence of Dextrans, Alternan, Mutan, and Pullulan . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.4
Properties and Occurrence of D-Glucose in Cyclic Dextrins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.5
Properties and Occurrence of Cellulose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
In: Glycoscience. Fraser-Reid B, Tatsuta K, Thiem J (eds)
Chapter-DOI 10-1007/978-3-540-30429-6_2: © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008