Oxidation of alditols

Manganese(III) has been employed for the oxidation of aldoses, and a general mechanism for the oxidation has been proposed.167 The oxidation of hexoses, pentoses, hexitols, and pentitols by Mn(III), as well as by other cations, was proposed to proceed via a free-radical mechanism,168 as shown in Scheme 26. Oxidation of alditols produces the corresponding aldoses, which are further oxidized in the presence of an excess of oxidant to the lower monosaccharides and thence to formaldehyde, formic acid, and even carbon dioxide. The kinetics for the oxidation of aldoses and ketoses by Mn(III) in sulfuric acid medium have been reported.169... 

Aldose reductase has been utilized for the selective reduction of aldos-2-uloses to 2-ketoses. Singlet oxygen oxidation of alditol-1-C-ylfurans 8 has afforded quantitative yields of enosuloses 9. Conjugate addition to enone 10 readily afforded the 2-deoxy-a-hexos-3-ulosides 11 and thioglycosidic analogues." l-C-(2-Thiazolyl)-... 

Stoll, M.S., Hounsell, E.F., Lawson, A.M., Chai, W., and Feizi, T. 1990. Microscale sequencing of O-linked oligosaccharides using mild periodate oxidation of alditols, coupling to phospholipid and TLC-MS analysis of the resulting neoglycolipids. Eur. J. Biochem., 189 499-507. 

The oxidation of alditols and methyl glycopyranosides, etc. with sodium metaperiodate in deuterium oxide has been followed by n.m.r. spectroscopy ... 

Oxidation of PI with chromium trioxide. Fraction PI was twice acetylated as described above. The peracetylated polysaccharide (75 mg), together with 20 mg of mannitol hexacetate as internal standard was dissolved in 1.5 mL of HCCI3, and treated with 1.89 mL of glacial acetic acid and 189 mg of chromium trioxide, at 50°C. Aliquots were removed at zero, 30, 60 and 120 min, water then added, and the material recovered by extraction with chloroform, hydrolyzed and analysed by GLC of derived alditol acetates. 

Another spectrophotometric method measuring both simple and combined sugars was described in papers by Johnson and Sieburth [158] and Burney and Sieburth [159]. The basic method comprised reduction of sugars to alditols with sodium borohydride, and oxidation of the alditols to form free formaldehyde. The formaldehyde was then determined spectrophotometrically with 3-methyl-2-benzothiazolinone hydrazone hydrochloride. 

The redox and complexation chemistry of alditol/Cr(VI) systems64 and the my<9-inositol/Cr(VI) system65 has been reported. In the first case, when an excess of the alditol over Cr(VI) is used, the secondary OH groups are inert to oxidation, and alditols are selectively oxidized at the primary OH group to yield the aldonic acid as the only oxidation product. The corresponding reaction involves a Cr(VI) —> Cr(V) —> Cr(III) reduction pathway, and the relative rate of each step depends on [H+] at... 

The fact that each monosaccharide may give more than one peak owing to the formation of anomeric derivatives has led to a search for means to eliminate this complication. The anomeric center may be removed either by conversion into the oxime5 or the nitrile,394,3943 by oxidation followed by formation of the lactone (see Section IX, p. 71), or by reduction to the alditol. The last method is simpler than oxidation, and the separation of alditols and of aldononitriles will be discussed here additional examples are given in Table V (see p. 119). The early work on the separation of alditols has been discussed by Bishop.4 The necessity of decomposing borate complexes... 

A procedure has been reported473 for the direct determination, on a column of Polypak, of polyhydric compounds without conversion into derivatives. Separation of pentitols was not complete, but the method was found excellent for determining the amount of one alditol, as in the oxidation of L-arabinitol by Acetobacter suboxydans. This rapid method of monitoring the utilization of L-arabinitol permitted the reaction to be stopped as soon as all of the substrate had been consumed, before side reactions interfered. 

The key sequence in the determination of the structures of 2,5-anhydro-D-mannose (2) and -D-talose (4) was their reduction to the corresponding 2,5-anhydroalditols (5 and 6) and identification of the asymmetric dialdehyde (7) resulting from oxidation of the anhydro-alditols with periodate.37,43... 

As regards the l,l-bis(acylamido)-l-deoxyalditols, the first structural study was that of Fletcher and coworkers,69 who conducted oxidations with lead tetraacetate. These authors postulated an empirical relationship between the position of the oxidation curve in a graph and the number of hydroxyl groups present. They compared the curves afforded by a series of l,l-bis(acetamido)-l-deoxyalditols with those of alditols having the same number of free hydroxyl groups, and observed a close correspondence. At present, periodate oxidation is widely applied to these mono- or di-saccharide derivatives. Under controlled conditions, the methylation technique can also be applied.42... 

Nitric acid oxidation of aldoses converts them to aldaric acids. The same D-aldoses found to yield optically inactive alditols in part (a) yield optically inactive aldaric acids. 

Alditols are oxidized by alkaline solutions of some halogens, and the main product seems to be the 1,2-dicarbonyl derivative. However, in further studies on the oxidation of pentitols and hexitols with bromine in the presence of calcium carbonate, 2- and 3-uloses and 2,5-hexodiuloses were... 

At American University, Harriet Frush and Horace Isbell worked on the mechanism of oxidation of carbohydrates by peroxides. They discovered that, in aqueous alkaline hydrogen peroxide, aldoses are quantitatively degraded to formic acid, so that hexoses produce six moles of this acid and pentoses produce five moles. A detailed study of the mechanism of the reaction revealed that degradation takes place by several pathways, the most rapid one involving the formation of peroxy radicals and hydroxy radicals. Thus, when a hydroperoxide-aldose adduct reacts with hydrogen peroxide, a peroxy radical is formed, which decomposes to a hydroxy radical, formic acid, and the next lower aldose. It was also found that, under basic conditions, hydroxy radicals oxidize alditols and aldonic acids to carbonyl compounds in much the same way they do with Fe2+ in the Fenton reaction. During the years she spent at American University, Dr. Frush was able to publish 10 papers without help from any research assistant or laboratory technician. This brought her total to more than 70 papers. 

A D-aldohexose A is formed from an aldopentose B by the Kiliani-Fischer synthesis. Reduction of A with NaBH4 forms an optically inactive alditol. Oxidation of B forms an optically active aldaric acid. What are the structures of A and B ... 

---