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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Renewable Product Technology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #282767
Title: The name of the -ose: An editorial on carbohydrate nomenclature

Author
item Price, Neil

Submitted to: Glycobiology
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/25/2012
Publication Date: 6/25/2012
Citation: Price, N.P. 2012. The name of the -ose: An editorial on carbohydrate nomenclature. Glycobiology. 1(2):1-2. doi: 10.4172/2168-958X.1000e105.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: What’s in a name? The term "sugar" is usually applied to the monosaccharides, disaccharides, and lower oligosaccharides, although "carbohydrate" ("hydrate de carbone") was originally used only for monosaccharides, because their composition can be expressed as Cn(H2O)n. Historically, sugars were named after their source, plus the suffix "-ose". Whether we write D-glucose, R-glucose, or (2R,3S,4R,5R)-6-(hydroxymethyl)tetrahydro-2H-pyran-2,3,4,5-tetrol, which is the IUPAC name for D-glucopyranose, using the correct nomenclature is important. Let’s make sure that we are all describing the same sugars. "What's in a name? That which we call an -ose by any other name would smell as sweet."