ABSTRACT
Carbohydrates are extremely important in nature, being used as building blocks for structures such as cell walls, as modifiers of solubility, and as means for storing energy. However, many carbohydrate derivatives are not abundant in the host organism, which despite the diverse array of functionality and stereochemistry only allows for a small number of these compounds to be available at a commercial scale [1]. This has to be counterbalanced against the breadth of sugar derivatives that are found in nature and, although only available at small scale (and often at a very high price), are cited as chirons [2]. In addition to sucrose, the carbohydrates produced at scale are d-glucose, d-sorbitol, d-lactose, d-fructose, d-mannitol, d-maltose, d-isomaltulose, d-gluconic acid, d-xylose, and lsorbose [3,4]. Most of these carbohydrates are used as food additives rather than chemical raw materials.
