The Synthesis of Carbohydrate Derivatives of Importance in Biosynthesis.

There is good evidence for the involvement of nucleoside diphosphate aldulose derivatives as intermediates in several important biochemical reactions. One such relation is the interconversion of D-glucose and D-galactose, this being considered to proceed via uridine diphosphate D-xylo-4-hexosulose 4-keto-D-glucose1. The report describes the continuation of efforts to synthesise the above compound and the analogous 6-deoxy compound. 1, 2, 3, 6-Tetra-O-benzoyl-alpha-D-glucopyranose has been obtained in good yield by selective benzoylation of alpha-D-glucose, and it is proposed that this tetrabenzoate be converted into the hexos4ulose dithioketal by means of the reactions used for the corresponding methyl glycoside.