Oxidation reactions of monosaccharides

A. G. Fadnis, Metal-ion oxidation reactions of monosaccharides a kinetic study, Carbohydr. Res., 146 (1986) 97-105. 

This acid-catalyzed cleavage of the glycosidic bonds is rather complex and often suffers from a lack of selectivity mainly due to side dehydration or recombination reactions of monosaccharides. In the existing literature, four different classes of solid catalysts are reported (1) cation-exchange resins, (2) siliceous-based materials, (3) metal oxides, and (4) sulfonated amorphous carbons. 

Show the products of the common reactions of monosaccharides that were presented in this chapter oxidation with nitric acid, oxidation with bromine, reduction with... 

Because monosaccharides contain alcohol functional groups and aldehyde (or ketone) functional groups, the reactions of monosaccharides are an extension of what you have already learned about the reactions of alcohols, aldehydes, and ketones. For example, an aldehyde group in a monosaccharide can be oxidized or reduced and can react with nucleophiles to formimines, hemiacetals, and acetals. When you read the sections that deal with the reactions of monosaccharides, you will find cross-references to the sections in which the same reactivity for simple organic compounds is discussed. As you study, refer back to these sections they will make learning about carbohydrates a lot easier and will give you a good review of some chemistry that you have already learned about. 

In this section, we discuss reactions of monosaccharides with alcohols, reducing agents, and oxidizing agents. In addition, we examine how these reactions are useful in our everyday lives. 

Although five- and six-carbon monosaccharides exist predominately as hemiacetals and hemiketals, they undergo the characteristic reduction and oxidation reactions of simple aldehydes and ketones. The reduction or oxidation reaction occurs by way of the carbonyl group in the small amount of the open-chain form of the monosaccharide in equilibrium with its cyclic hemiacetal or hemiketal. As the reduction or oxidation occurs, the equilibrium shifts to produce more of the carbonyl form until eventually all the monosaccharide reacts. 

The most general methods for the syntheses of 1,2-difunctional molecules are based on the oxidation of carbon-carbon multiple bonds (p. 117) and the opening of oxiranes by hetero atoms (p. 123fl.). There exist, however, also a few useful reactions in which an a - and a d -synthon or two r -synthons are combined. The classical polar reaction is the addition of cyanide anion to carbonyl groups, which leads to a-hydroxynitriles (cyanohydrins). It is used, for example, in Strecker s synthesis of amino acids and in the homologization of monosaccharides. The ff-hydroxy group of a nitrile can be easily substituted by various nucleophiles, the nitrile can be solvolyzed or reduced. Therefore a large variety of terminal difunctional molecules with one additional carbon atom can be made. Equally versatile are a-methylsulfinyl ketones (H.G. Hauthal, 1971 T. Durst, 1979 O. DeLucchi, 1991), which are available from acid chlorides or esters and the dimsyl anion. Carbanions of these compounds can also be used for the synthesis of 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds (p. 65f.). 

Reaction of nitromethane and monosaccharide-derived dialdehydes is a useful tool that has been broadly used for the preparation of nitro and amino sugars, and carbocycles.30 Dialdehydes can easily be obtained by oxidative cleavage of conveniently protected monosaccharides with sodium periodate. Their subsequent Henry reaction with a nitroalkene, commonly nitromethane, usually gives isomeric mixtures that require the isolation of the major isomer.31 Thus, treatment of the D-ribose derivative 27 with sodium periodate gave dialdehyde 28, which was subjected to a Henry reaction with nitromethane, to afford nitrosugar 29 as an epimeric mixture (Scheme 11).32... 

The presence of alcohol and, in some cases, an aldehyde group makes monosaccharides susceptible to oxidation, whereas the presence of a carbonyl group makes monosaccharides susceptible to reduction. Because monosaccharides are the fundamental carbohydrate, you need to know what happens in the many reactions in which they re involved. The following sections are here to help you out with that. Welcome to the nitty-gritty of monosaccharide oxidation and reduction ... 

Oxidizing the aldehyde group present in aldoses is easy oxidizing the carbonyl group in a ketose is far more difficult. The susceptibility (or lack thereof) to simple oxidation is a useful method of distinguishing between aldoses and ketoses. The next sections explore the various types of monosaccharide oxidation reactions that can occur. 

Abstract Polyfunctionality of carbohydrates and their low solubility in conventional organic solvents make rather complex their conversion to higher value added chemicals. Therefore, innovative processes are now strongly needed in order to increase the selectivity of these reactions. Here, we report an overview of the different heterogeneously-catalyzed processes described in the literature. In particular, hydrolysis, dehydration, oxidation, esterification, and etherification of carbohydrates are presented. We shall discuss the main structural parameters that need to be controlled and that permit the conversion of carbohydrates to bioproducts with good selectivity. The conversion of monosaccharides and disaccharides over solid catalysts, as well as recent advances in the heterogeneously-catalyzed conversion of cellulose, will be presented. 

Here we report an overview of the different heterogeneously-catalyzed pathways designed for the selective conversion of carbohydrates. On the basis of these results, we shall try to determine the key parameters allowing a better control of the reaction selectivity. Water being commonly used as solvent in carbohydrate chemistry, we will also discuss the stability of solid catalysts in the aqueous phase. In this review, heterogeneously-catalyzed hydrolysis, dehydration, oxidation, esterification, and etherification of monosaccharides and polysaccharides are reported. 

Oxidation of carbohydrates is probably the most efficient heterogeneously-catalyzed process since very high yield and selectivity are reported for reactions over solid catalysts. Despite important recent advances, the conversion of carbohydrates to HMF still requires further investigations. For reactions, in water, the yield of HMF is still too low due to the significant formation of side products. Today, several procedures for the conversion of monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides, and starch in water into high value added materials are available. With cellulose, its heterogeneously-catalyzed conversion into useful products... 

Two approaches, based on furan, have found wide application in carbohydrate synthesis. Cycloaddition reactions of furan with 2-substituted acrylonitrile or acrolein lead to oxabicycloheptanes which, in tnm, can be transformed to monosaccharides. On the other hand, furfuryl alcohols can be converted—either by the Clauson-Kaas reaction or by mild oxidation—into 5,6-dihydro-4-pyrones, suitable for easy functionalization to sugars. 

Monosaccharides react with a variety of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds in the presence of zinc chloride in ethanolic or aqueous solution to yield substituted furans (Scheme 69) (56MI31200). The reaction of ethyl acetoacetate with D-glucose and D-mannose yielded the trisubstituted furan (252) in 20% yield, while D-fructose under similar conditions yielded (253 7%). These products have been used for the synthesis of dehydromuscarones (63HCA1259). Oxidation of the tetrahydroxybutyl side chains with lead tetraacetate gives the aldehyde, which can be converted to the corresponding acid with alkaline silver oxide. 

The oxidative effects of silver(II) complexes of pyridine carboxylates have been studied for a variety of substrates. With ar-amino acids, a rapid reaction occurred at 70 °C in aqueous solution with bis(pyridyl-2-carboxylato)silver(II). 4 The product was the next lower homologous aldehyde and yields were generally greater than 80%. Other substrates included primary and secondary amines, alcohols, monosaccharide derivatives, alkenes, arylalkanes and arylalkanols.90 Only minor differences were detected in efficiencies when 2-, 3- or 4-mono-, or 2,3-di-carboxylates were used as the oxidant. 

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