Sulfur dioxide, reaction with carbohydrates

Even less is known about the effects of ozone on carbohydrates. Buell et al. observed a decrease in the depolymerization of hyaluronic acid after treatment of the lungs of ozone-exposed rabbits (1 ppm for 1 h) with hyaluronidase. B. Goldstein et al. reported a loss in membrane neuraminic acid of red cells exposed in vitro to high concentrations of ozone. It would be important to study the effects of ozone on respiratory tract mucus, which is rich in carbohydrates, including neuraminic acid. This could indude determination of foe extent to which ozone is able to penetrate mucus that is unaltered, whether foe reaction of ozone with mucus results in the formation of cytotoxic intermediates, and evaluation of the interaction in mucus of ozone with other air pollutants, particularly sulfur dioxide. Of possible pertinence is a study by Falk et who observed that ozone produced a loss in foe viral hemagglutinating ability of snail mucus. 

Chlorosulfate groups can be readily removed to give the corresponding hydroxyl groups, with retention of configuration, by treatment of a solution of the carbohydrate chlorosulfate in methanol with sodium iodide in aqueous methanol24 immediate liberation of iodine and evolution of sulfur dioxide occur.34 A possible mechanism for the dechlorosulfation reaction involves displacement by iodide at the chlorine atom the initially formed iodine monochloride would react with iodide ion to give iodine and chloride ion. Alternatively, an unstable iodosulfate could be formed as an intermediate.35... 

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