Aldohexose

Encyclopedia : A : AL : ALD : Aldohexose

An aldohexose is a hexose with an aldehyde group on one end.

The aldohexoses have four chiral centres for a total of 16 possible aldohexose stereoisomers (2⁴). Of these, only three occur in nature: D-glucose, D-galactose, and D-mannose. The D/L configuration is based on the orientation of the hydroxyl at position 3, and does not refer to the direction of optical activity.

There are eight D-aldohexoses:

CH=O           CH=O          CH=O            CH=O
|              |             |               |
HC-OH        HO-CH           HC-OH         HO-CH
|              |             |               |
HC-OH          HC-OH       HO-CH           HO-CH
|              |             |               |
HC-OH          HC-OH         HC-OH           HC-OH
|              |             |               |
HC-OH          HC-OH         HC-OH           HC-OH
|              |             |               |
CH2-OH         CH2-OH        CH2-OH          CH2-OH
D-Allose      D-Altrose     D-Glucose      D-Mannose

CH=O        CH=O            CH=O            CH=O
|           |               |               |
HC-OH     HO-CH             HC-OH         HO-CH
|           |               |               |
HC-OH       HC-OH         HO-CH           HO-CH
|           |               |               |
HO-CH       HO-CH           HO-CH           HO-CH
|           |               |               |
HC-OH       HC-OH           HC-OH           HC-OH
|           |               |               |
CH2-OH      CH2-OH          CH2-OH          CH2-OH
D-Gulose    D-Idose       D-Galactose        D-Talose

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