ABSTRACT

Fischer's cumulative research on the carbohydrates was immense, covering a period of 24 years between 1884 and 1908. Fischer speculated that the reduction of the sugar diacids could be a general method for making new kinds of sugars. Fischer's work on the sugars has remained one of the most famous accomplishments of organic chemistry to this day, and nearly all organic chemistry textbooks contain a small section devoted to Fischer's carbohydrate chemistry. In the section on the 'constitution of mannose', Fischer and Hirschberger concluded that 'dextrose and mannose are the first example in the sugar group of two isomers that possess the same structure and can be transformed into each other'. Fischer argued, the sugar derived from the reduction of the osone made from a-acrose was inactive levulose, because the sugar derived from the reduction of the osone from mannose was also active levulose.