5 Carbohydrates
It goes without saying that by strictly applying the rules of subtitutive
nomenclature, all carbohydrates and their derivatives could readily and
uniformly be named as polyhydroxyalkanals, -alkanones, -tetrahydrofurans, -tetrahydropyrans, -oxepanes, -alkanoic acids, etc. which would,
however, require supplementing by a more or less extended set of stereodescriptors. It is precisely this last problem which in the specific framework
of carbohydrate nomenclature has been solved in a distinctly different and
certainly much clearer manner, in that numerous stereo chemically unambiguously defined trivial and semitrivial names have been installed as cornerstones of the body of rules. The pertinent rule manual has recently
been published in a thoroughly revised edition but its fundamental systematic features, as presented in the following paragraphs, should also be
familiar to the non-specialist.
5.1
Aldoses
Monosaccharides of the polyhydroxyalkanal type have the class name
aldose and as individual representatives with up to six carbon atoms the
trivial names compiled in Table 15.