ABSTRACT
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The physical, biological, and chemical properties of organic compounds depend, among other things, on the nature and steric arrangement of the chemical bonds. Stereoisomeric hexoses, which differ in configuration of their molecules, are examples of a relationship between three-dimensional structure and biological activity of compounds. The free rotation around a single bond produces a different three-dimensional arrangement of the atoms in space; that is, different molecule conformations. Conformations rapidly convert into one another and are therefore nonseparable. In a vast majority of compounds with an alicyclic six-membered ring, the molecules, in most cases, take the chair conformation. One bond on each carbon atom is directed perpendicularly to the plane of the ring (axially) and the other resides in the plane of the ring (the equatorial bond), denoted in (2.1) as a and e, respectively.
