ABSTRACT
Acyclic derivative of sugars have played a significant role in the area of synthetic carbohydrate chemistry, permitting numerous useful transformations that are not possible with the parent sugars, which exist almost exclusively in the hemiacetal form. Trapping of aldoses in the acyclic form as their dialkyl dithioacetals, by treatment with thiols in the presence of acid, has been a synthetically important method ever since Emil Fischer's first report some 100 years ago [l], and remains an important tool in modem synthetic carbohydrate chemistry.
