Pyranose is a collective term for saccharides that have a chemical structure that includes a six-membered ring consisting of five carbon atoms and one oxygen atom. There may be other carbons external to the ring. The name derives from its similarity to the oxygen heterocycle pyran, but the pyranose ring does not have double bonds. A pyranose in which the anomeric OH at C(l) has been converted into an OR group is called a pyranoside.

Formation

The pyranose ring is formed by the reaction of the

hydroxyl In chemistry, a hydroxy or hydroxyl group is a functional group with the chemical formula and composed of one oxygen atom covalently bonded to one hydrogen atom. In organic chemistry, alcohols and carboxylic acids contain one or more hydrox ...

group on carbon 5 (C-5) of a sugar with the

aldehyde In organic chemistry, an aldehyde () is an organic compound containing a functional group with the structure . The functional group itself (without the "R" side chain) can be referred to as an aldehyde but can also be classified as a formyl gro ...

at carbon 1. This forms an intramolecular

hemiacetal A hemiacetal or a hemiketal has the general formula R1R2C(OH)OR, where R1 or R2 is hydrogen or an organic substituent. They generally result from the addition of an alcohol to an aldehyde or a ketone, although the latter are sometimes called hemi ...

. If reaction is between the C-4 hydroxyl and the aldehyde, a furanose is formed instead. The pyranose form is thermodynamically more stable than the furanose form, which can be seen by the distribution of these two cyclic forms in solution. Representations of glucopyranose

History

Hermann Emil Fischer Hermann Emil Louis Fischer (; 9 October 1852 – 15 July 1919) was a German chemist and 1902 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He discovered the Fischer esterification. He also developed the Fischer projection, a symbolic way of draw ...

won the

Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...

(1902) for his work in determining the structure of the D- aldohexoses. However, the linear, free-aldehyde structures that Fischer proposed represent a very minor percentage of the forms that hexose sugars adopt in solution. It was Edmund Hirst and Clifford Purves, in the research group of Walter Haworth, who conclusively determined that the hexose sugars preferentially form a pyranose, or six-membered, ring. Haworth drew the ring as a flat hexagon with groups above and below the plane of the ring – the

Haworth projection In chemistry, a Haworth projection is a common way of writing a structural formula to represent the cyclic structure of monosaccharides with a simple three-dimensional perspective. Haworth projection approximate the shapes of the actual molec ...

. A further refinement to the conformation of pyranose rings came when Sponsler and Dore (1926) realized that Sachse’s mathematical treatment of six-membered rings could be applied to their X-ray structure of

cellulose Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to many thousands of β(1→4) linked D-glucose units. Cellulose is an important structural component of the primary cell wa ...

. It was determined that the pyranose ring is puckered, to allow all of the carbon atoms of the ring to have close to the ideal tetrahedral geometry.

Conformations

This puckering leads to a total of 38 distinct basic pyranose conformations: 2 chairs, 6 boats, 6 skew-boats, 12 half-chairs, and 12 envelopes. Glucopyranose Conformations (linear format)

These conformers can interconvert with one another; however, each form may have very different relative energy, so a significant barrier to interconversion may be present. The energy of these conformations can be calculated from

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...

; an example of possible glucopyranose interconversions is given. The conformations of the pyranose ring are superficially similar to that of the cyclohexane ring. However, the specific nomenclature of pyranoses includes reference to the ring oxygen, and the presence of hydroxyls on the ring have distinct effects on its conformational preference. There are also conformational and stereochemical effects specific to the pyranose ring.

Nomenclature

To name conformations of pyranose, first the conformer is determined. The common conformers are similar to those found in cyclohexane, and these form the basis of the name. Common conformations are chair (C), boat (B), skew (S), half-chair (H) or envelope (E). The ring atoms are then numbered; the anomeric, or hemiacetal, carbon is always 1. Oxygen atoms in the structure are, in general, referred to by the carbon atom they are attached to in the acyclic form, and designated O. Then: *Position the ring so that, if looking at the top face, the atoms are numbered clockwise. *In the chair and skew conformations, the reference plane should be selected. In the chair conformation, the reference plane is chosen such that the lowest-numbered atom (usually C-1) is exoplanar. In the skew conformation, the plane contains three adjacent atoms and one other with the atom with the lowest possible number exoplanar. *Atoms above the plane are written before the conformer label, as a superscript *Atoms below the plane are written following the conformer label, as a subscript

NMR spectroscopy

As shown by the relative structure energies in the diagram above, the chair structures are the most stable carbohydrate form. This relatively defined and stable conformation means that the hydrogen atoms of the pyranose ring are held at relatively constant angles to one another.

Carbohydrate NMR Carbohydrate NMR spectroscopy is the application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to structural and conformational analysis of carbohydrates. This method allows the scientists to elucidate structure of monosaccharides, oligosacchar ...

takes advantage of these dihedral angles to determine the configuration of each of the hydroxyl groups around the ring.

References