Glucose epimerization

After recovery of L-lysine, the residual dl-(49) is epimerized to a mixture of the DL and meso isomers, and the latter is subjected to the same decarboxylation step. This reaction is a part of a microbial process in which glucose is fermented by a lysine auxotroph of E. coli to meso- which accumulates in the medium. Meso-(49) is quantitatively decarboxylated to L-lysine by cell suspensions oi erobacteraerogenes (93). However, L-lysine and some... 

Pyridone also catalyzes epimerization of the anomeric position of the tetramethyl ether of glucose. The mechanism involves two double proton transfers. The first leads to a ring-opened intermediate, and the second results in ring closure to the isomerized product ... 

The first synthesis, by method a, of amylostatin (XG) was reported by Kuzuhara and Sakairi. The synthon for the cyclohexene moiety was the benzylated allyl bromide 382, derived from D-glucose by the sequence 378 — 382 of the Perrier reaction. The coupling reaction of 382 using an excess of 4-amino-T,6 -anhydro-4,6-dideoxymaltose tetrabenzyl ether (383), and sodium iodide in DMF for 3 days produced a mixture of the epimeric monocarba-trisaccharide derivatives, separation of which gave the protected derivatives in 15% yield. 

Intramolecular Henry reactions of nitro sugars are usually diastereo-selective sometimes a single isomer results from an epimeric mixture, on account of the reversivility of the Henry reaction, which allows equilibration through open chain intermediates.49 A recent example involving the D-glucose derived nitro acid ester 26 is shown in Scheme 22. 

Recently, a synthesis of tetrodotoxin from D-glucose was described (Scheme 36). After a Michael addition of the lithium salt of bis(phenylthio)-methane to the nitroolefin 116, the major component (117b) of the resulting epimeric mixture 117a + 117b was subjected to a reaction sequence that involved an intramolecular nitroaldol reaction, to give the complex nitro cyclohexane derivative 118. 

One of the best-known systems involving epimerization is that of d-glucose. In aqueous solution the epimeric a- and 0-forms are in equilibrium, but each can be obtained by crystallization ethanol readily affords the pure a-form, whereas pure 0 may be obtained from pyridine. 

The synthesis of " C-labelled o-glucose starts with the pentose o-arabinose and " C-labelled potassium cyanide, which react together to form a cyanohydrin (see Section 7.6.1). Since cyanide can attack the planar carbonyl group from either side, the cyanohydrin product will be a mixture of two diastereoisomers that are epimeric at the new chiral centre. The two epimers are usually formed in unequal amounts because of a chiral influence from the rest of the arabinose structure during attack of the nucleophile. 

Removal of the a-hydrogen in o-glucose leads to enolization (we have omitted the enolate anion in the mechanism). Reversal of this process allows epimerization at C-2, since the enol function is planar, and a proton can be acquired from either face, giving D-mannose as well as o-glucose. Alternatively, we can get isomerization to o-fmctose. This is because the intermediate enol is actually an enediol restoration of the carbonyl function can, therefore, provide either a C-1 carbonyl or a C-2 carbonyl. The equilibrium mixture using dilute aqueous sodium hydroxide at room temperature consists mainly of o-glucose and o-fructose, with smaller amounts of D-mannose. The same mixture would be obtained... 

Epimerization. In weakly alkaline solutions, glucose is in equilibrium with the ketohexose D-fructose and the aldohexose D-mannose, via an enediol intermediate (not shown). The only difference between glucose and mannose is the configuration at C-2. Pairs of sugars of this type are referred to as epi-mers, and their interconversion is called epimerization. 

This enzyme [EC 5.1.3.3], also known as mutarotase, catalyzes the epimerization of the hemiacetal carbon atom of aldoses (thus, anomerization). Hence, a-D-glu-cose is reversibly converted to /3-D-glucose. Other sugars can act as substrates (e.g., L-arabinose, D-xylose, D-galac-tose, maltose, and lactose). 

The stereochemical isomerization or structural rearrangement resulting in the interconversion of epimers. For example, the conversion of jS-D-glucose to jS-D-galac-tose involves epimerization at the C-4 carbon atom, and the epimerization at the C-2 of jS-D-glucose results in the synthesis of jS-D-mannose. 

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