Why Some Sugars Have a Cyclic and a Chain Structure
In your current course of organic chemistry, you're studying sugars. You notice in a text or see on the web a particular sugar, you've searched for by name. What is its true structure? You see it drawn as a chain structure with pendant groups. As you read about it, you see reference to another structure... a cyclic structure! What gives? Sugars: Example Fructose Some chemicals undergo change with the most minimal modification of environment. One example is keto-enol tautomerism. Fructose and certain other sugars experience something similar. It reacts reversibly, to form two cyclic hemiketals. Fructose Hemiketals A hemiketal forms by combination of an alcohol group with a ketone group. Fructose supplies both reactive groups, internally. For the generic reaction for hemiketal formation, see the accompanying illustration. Note the presence…