ABSTRACT

Carbohydrate nomenclature impacts on stereochemistry, and on the nomenclature of compounds other than mainstream carbohydrates (e.g. hydroxylactones), often named as modied carbohydrates in CAS and elsewhere. (Pure Appl. Chem., 1996, 68, 1919-2008.)

The fundamental carbohydrates are polyhydroxyaldehydes (aldoses) and -ketones (ketoses). Of these, the most important for nomenclature are the aldoses. An aldose, HOCH2(CHOH)n−2CHO, has (n − 2) chiral centres. The stereochemical designation of a fundamental aldose is arrived at by assigning it to the d-or l-series depending on the absolute conguration of the highest-numbered chiral centre (penultimate carbon atom) of the chain, together with the aldose name which denes the relative conguration of all the chiral centres, thus d-Glucose. This system of stereodescription is used extensively in organic chemistry to specify the absolute congurations of compounds that can be related to carbohydrates. When applied in this general sense, the descriptors are italicised, e.g. l-erythro-, d-gluco-.