Aldose hydrogenation

The presence of an aldehyde function m their open chain forms makes aldoses reactive toward nucleophilic addition of hydrogen cyanide Addition yields a mixture of diastereo meric cyanohydrins... 

The reaction is used for the chain extension of aldoses in the synthesis of new or unusual sugars In this case the starting material l arabinose is an abundant natural product and possesses the correct configurations at its three chirality centers for elaboration to the relatively rare l enantiomers of glucose and mannose After cyanohydrin formation the cyano groups are converted to aldehyde functions by hydrogenation m aqueous solution Under these conditions —C=N is reduced to —CH=NH and hydrolyzes rapidly to —CH=0 Use of a poisoned palladium on barium sulfate catalyst prevents further reduction to the alditols... 

Arsenious oxide, trivalent antimony (73), sulfurous acid (74), hydrogen sulfide (75), stannous ion, and thiocianate (76) have been recommended for the titration of iodine. However, none of these appears to have a greater sensitivity for the deterrnination of minute quantities of iodine than thiosulfate. Organic compounds such as formaldehyde (77), chloral hydrate (78), aldoses (79), acetone (70,80), and hydroquinone have also been suggested for this purpose. 

Addition of hydrogen cyanide to an aldose to form a cyanohydrin is the first step in the Kiliani-Fischer method for increasing the carbon chain of aldoses by one unit. Cyanohydrins react with Grignard reagents (see Grignard reaction) to give a-hydroxy ketones. 

Reduction (Section 25.18) The carbonyl group of aldoses and ketoses is reduced by sodium borohydride or by catalytic hydrogenation. The products are called alditols. 

Elimination reactions (Figure 5.7) often result in the formation of carbon-carbon double bonds, isomerizations involve intramolecular shifts of hydrogen atoms to change the position of a double bond, as in the aldose-ketose isomerization involving an enediolate anion intermediate, while rearrangements break and reform carbon-carbon bonds, as illustrated for the side-chain displacement involved in the biosynthesis of the branched chain amino acids valine and isoleucine. Finally, we have reactions that involve generation of resonance-stabilized nucleophilic carbanions (enolate anions), followed by their addition to an electrophilic carbon (such as the carbonyl carbon atoms... 

D-xylose was converted into 2-furaldehyde in acidified, tritiated water, no carbon-bound isotope was detected. This suggested that the 1,2-enediol (2) reacted immediately, as otherwise, tritium would have been detected at the aldehydic carbon atom of 2-furaldehyde, as a result of aldose-ketose interconversion.An acidic dehydration performed with d-[2- H]xylose showed that an intramolecular C-2-C-1 hydrogen transfer had actually occurred. Thus, these data indicated that an intramolecular hydride shift is more probable than the previously accepted step involving a 1,2-enediol intermediate. 

We should first consider the open-chain form of glucose 6-phosphate, rather than its pyranose hemiacetal form (see Section 12.2.1). The open-chain aldose has the requirements for enolization, namely a hydrogen a to the aldehyde carbonyl group. Enolization produces in this case an enediol, which can revert to a keto form in two ways, i.e. reforming... 

Creighton and Murthy recently reviewed the stereochemistry and related mechanistic issues associated with enzyme-catalyzed isomerizations that proceed by 1,2-hydrogen transfer or by 1,3-aUytic hydrogen transfer. In the first case, the prototypical aldose-ketose isomerase is triose-phosphate isomerase (or TPl), an enzyme that uses the carboxylate of Glu-165 as a base for abstracting a proton from the substrate during catalysis. A -3-Keto-... 

Reduction of a ketose yields a secondary alcohol, and reduction of an aldose yields a primary alcohol (ccilled an alditol). A possible reducing agent is hydrogenation in the presence of a catalyst, such as platinum another reducing agent is sodium borohydride (NaBH ) followed by hydrolysis. Figure 16-14 illustrates the formation of an alditol. 

Kiliani-Fischer synthesis is a means of lengthening the carbon backbone of a carbohydrate. The process begins with the reaction of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) with an aldehyde to produce a cyanohydrin. Treatment of the cyanohydrin with barium hydroxide followed by acidification yields an aldose with an additional carbon atom, as shown in Figure 16-16. The formation of the cyanohydrin creates a new chiral center as a racemic mixture. 

One of the differences between ketoses-and aldoses is that the ketoses have a CH2OH group bound to the reducing carbon atom instead of a hydrogen atom. In the absence of further experimental results on the action of boric acid on ketoses it seems best to defer allocations and to emphasize only that ketoses form much greater quantities of the boric acid complex than do aldoses. This is apparently due to the fact that... 

The interconversion of aldoses and the respective 2-ketoses in alkaline solution may be somewhat more complex than originally supposed, as it has been reported that a partial transfer of hydrogen from C-2 of the aldose to C-l of the corresponding ketose occurs during the reaction.29 This observation is not inconsistent with isomerizations that involve 1,2-enediol intermediates. The transfer could occur as a result of a rapid conversion in which some of the protons originally at C-2 of the aldose molecules are retained by the solvent cage that surrounds the intermediate 1,2-enediol, and are, therefore, available for addition to C-l of the resulting ketose. It should be noted that other interpretations, such as hydride-transfer mechanisms, are also possible. 

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