organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...

, a ketose is a

monosaccharide Monosaccharides (from Greek '' monos'': single, '' sacchar'': sugar), also called simple sugars, are the simplest forms of sugar and the most basic units (monomers) from which all carbohydrates are built. Chemically, monosaccharides are polyhy ...

containing one

ketone In organic chemistry, a ketone is an organic compound with the structure , where R and R' can be a variety of carbon-containing substituents. Ketones contain a carbonyl group (a carbon-oxygen double bond C=O). The simplest ketone is acetone ( ...

() group per

molecule A molecule is a group of two or more atoms that are held together by Force, attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions that satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemi ...

. The simplest ketose is

dihydroxyacetone Dihydroxyacetone (; DHA), also known as glycerone, is a simple saccharide (a triose) with formula . DHA is primarily used as an ingredient in sunless tanning products. It is often derived from plant sources such as sugar beets and sugar cane, ...

(), which has only three carbon atoms. It is the only ketose with no

optical activity Optical rotation, also known as polarization rotation or circular birefringence, is the rotation of the orientation of the plane of polarization about the optical axis of linearly polarized light as it travels through certain materials. Circul ...

. All monosaccharide ketoses are

reducing sugar A reducing sugar is any sugar that is capable of acting as a reducing agent. In an alkaline solution, a reducing sugar forms some aldehyde or ketone, which allows it to act as a reducing agent, for example in Benedict's reagent. In such a react ...

s, because they can

tautomer In chemistry, tautomers () are structural isomers (constitutional isomers) of chemical compounds that readily interconvert. The chemical reaction interconverting the two is called tautomerization. This conversion commonly results from the reloca ...

ize into

aldose An aldose is a monosaccharide (a simple sugar) with a carbon backbone chain with a carbonyl group on the endmost carbon atom, making it an aldehyde, and hydroxyl groups connected to all the other carbon atoms. Aldoses can be distinguished from ket ...

s via an

enediol In organic chemistry, enols are a type of functional group or intermediate in organic chemistry containing a group with the formula (R = many substituents). The term ''enol'' is an abbreviation of ''alkenol'', a portmanteau deriving from "-ene ...

intermediate, and the resulting aldehyde group can be oxidised, for example in the Tollens' test or

Benedict's test Benedict's reagent (often called Benedict's qualitative solution or Benedict's solution) is a chemical reagent and complex mixture of sodium carbonate, sodium citrate, and copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate. It is often used in place of Fehli ...

. Ketoses that are bound into

glycoside In chemistry, a glycoside is a molecule in which a sugar is bound to another functional group via a glycosidic bond. Glycosides play numerous important roles in living organisms. Many plants store chemicals in the form of inactive glycosides. ...

s, for example in the case of the fructose moiety of

sucrose Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula . For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refined ...

, are nonreducing sugars.

Chemistry

Ketoses and aldoses can be chemically differentiated through

Seliwanoff's test Seliwanoff’s test is a chemical test which distinguishes between aldose and ketose sugars. If the sugar contains a ketone group, it is a ketose. If a sugar contains an aldehyde group, it is an aldose. This test relies on the principle that, whe ...

, where the sample is heated with acid and

resorcinol Resorcinol (or resorcin) is a phenolic compound. It is an organic compound with the formula C6H4(OH)2. It is one of three isomeric benzenediols, the 1,3-isomer (or ''meta- (chemistry), meta''-isomer). Resorcinol crystallizes from benzene as co ...

. The test relies on the

dehydration reaction In chemistry, a dehydration reaction is a chemical reaction that involves the loss of an H2O from the reacting molecule(s) or ion(s). This reaction results in the release of the H2O as water. When the reaction involves the coupling of two molecu ...

which occurs more quickly in ketoses, so that while aldoses react slowly, producing a light pink color, ketoses react more quickly and strongly to produce a dark red color. Ketoses can

isomer In chemistry, isomers are molecules or polyatomic ions with identical molecular formula – that is, the same number of atoms of each element (chemistry), element – but distinct arrangements of atoms in space. ''Isomerism'' refers to the exi ...

ize to aldoses through the Lobry-de Bruyn-van Ekenstein transformation.

Examples of ketoses

All ketoses listed here are 2-ketoses, in other words, the

carbonyl group In organic chemistry, a carbonyl group is a functional group with the formula , composed of a carbon atom double-bonded to an oxygen atom, and it is divalent at the C atom. It is common to several classes of organic compounds (such as aldehydes ...

is on the second carbon atom from the end: *

Triose A triose is a monosaccharide, or simple sugar, containing three carbon atoms. There are only three possible trioses: the two enantiomers of glyceraldehyde, which are aldoses; and dihydroxyacetone, a ketose which is symmetrical and therefore ha ...

Tetrose In organic chemistry, a tetrose is a monosaccharide with 4 carbon atoms. They have either an aldehyde () functional group in position 1 (aldotetroses) or a ketone () group in position 2 (ketotetroses). File:DErythrose Fischer.svg , D-Erythrose Fi ...

erythrulose D-Erythrulose (also known as erythrulose) is a tetrose carbohydrate with the chemical formula C4 H8 O4. It has one ketone group and so is part of the ketose family. It is used in some self-tanning cosmetics, in general, combined with dihydrox ...

Pentose In chemistry, a pentose is a monosaccharide (simple sugar) with five carbon atoms. The chemical formula of many pentoses is , and their molecular weight is 150.13 g/mol.ribulose, xylulose *

Hexose In chemistry, a hexose is a monosaccharide (simple sugar) with six carbon atoms. The chemical formula for all hexoses is , and their molecular weight is 180.156 g/mol. Hexoses exist in two forms, open-chain or cyclic, that easily convert into ...

fructose Fructose (), or fruit sugar, is a Ketose, ketonic monosaccharide, simple sugar found in many plants, where it is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose. It is one of the three dietary monosaccharides, along with glucose and gal ...

, psicose, sorbose, tagatose * Heptoses: sedoheptulose *

Octose An octose is a monosaccharide containing eight carbon atoms. Lincomycin contains the octose methylthiolincosamide. See also * Heptose * Hexose * Pentose References

Monosaccharides {{Carbohydrate-stub ...

s: -''manno''-octulose (the basis for KDO) * Nonoses: -''glycero''--''galacto''-nonulose (the basis for

neuraminic acid Neuraminic acid (5-amino-3,5-dideoxy-D-''glycero''-D-''galacto''-non-2-ulosonic acid) is an Sugar acid, acidic (in particular Sugar acid#ulosonic acid, ulosonic) amino sugar, amino sugar with a backbone formed by nine carbon atoms. Although 9 ...

)

References

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