Xylose Information & Xylose Links at HealthHaven.com

D-Xylose
IUPAC name	D-Xylose
Other names	(+)-Xylose; Wood sugar
Identifiers
CAS number	58-86-6 ,; 609-06-3 (L-isomer); 41247-05-6 (racemate)
PubChem	6027
EC-number	200-400-7
Properties
Molecular formula	C5H10O5
Molar mass	150.13 g/mol
Appearance	monoclinic needles or prisms, colourless
Density	1.525 g/cm3 (20 °C)
Melting point	144-145 °C
Chiral rotation [α]D	+22.5º (CHCl3)
Related compounds
Related aldopentoses	Arabinose; Ribose; Lyxose
Related compounds	Xylulose
	(what is this?) (verify); Except where noted otherwise, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C, 100 kPa)
	Infobox references

Xylose (cf. Greek ξυλος, xylos, "wood"), or wood sugar, is an aldopentose — a monosaccharide containing five carbon atoms and including an aldehyde functional group. It has chemical formula C₅H₁₀O₅. Xylose is found in the embryos of most edible plants. It was first isolated from wood by Koch in 1881. With its free carbonyl group, it is a reducing sugar.

In animal medicine, xylose is used to test for malabsorption by administration in water to the patient after fasting. If xylose is detected in blood and/or urine within the next few hours, it has been absorbed by the intestines.^[3] Reduction of xylose by catalytic hydrogenation produces the sugar substitute xylitol.

Xylose is also the first saccharide added to the serine or threonine in the proteoglycan type O-glycosylation and so it is the first saccharide in biosynthetic pathways of most anionic polysaccharides such as heparan sulfate and chondroitin sulfate.^[4]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

^ The Merck Index: An Encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs, and Biologicals (11th ed.), Merck, 1989, ISBN 091191028X , 9995.
^ Weast, Robert C., ed. (1981), CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (62nd ed.), Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, p. C-574, ISBN 0-8493-0462-8 .
^ "D-xylose absorption", MedlinePlus (U.S. National Library of Medecine), July 2008, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003606.htm, retrieved 2009-09-06 .
^ Buskas; Ingale, Sampat; Boons, Geert-Jan (2006), "Glycopeptides as versatile tool for glycobiology", Glycobiology 16 (8): 113R–36R, doi:10.1093/glycob/cwj125, PMID 16675547 .

[0] The Merck Index: An Encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs, and Biologicals (11th ed.), Merck, 1989, ISBN 091191028X , 9995.

[1] Weast, Robert C., ed. (1981), CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (62nd ed.), Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, p. C-574, ISBN 0-8493-0462-8 .

[2] "D-xylose absorption", MedlinePlus (U.S. National Library of Medecine), July 2008, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003606.htm, retrieved 2009-09-06 .

[3] Buskas; Ingale, Sampat; Boons, Geert-Jan (2006), "Glycopeptides as versatile tool for glycobiology", Glycobiology 16 (8): 113R–36R, doi:10.1093/glycob/cwj125, PMID 16675547 .

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