CHEMISTRY GLOSSARY

disaccharide    →   disaharid

Disaccharides are compounds in which two monosaccharides are joined by a glycosidic bond. A glycosidic bond to the anomeric carbon can be either α or β. For example, maltose, the disaccharide obtained by enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis of starch, consists of two D-glucopyranose units joined by a 1,4’-α-glycoside bond. The "prime" superscript indicates that C-4 is not in the same ring as C-1. Unlike the other disaccharides, sucrose is not a reducing sugar and does not exhibit mutarotation because the glycosidic bond is between the anomeric carbon of glucose and the anomeric carbon of fructose.

Fehling’s test    →   Fehlingova otopina

Fehling’s test is a chemical test to detect reducing sugars and aldehydes in a solution, devised by the German chemist Hermann Christian von Fehling (1812-1885). Fehling’s solution consists of Fehling’s A (copper(II) sulphate solution) and Fehling’s B (sodium tartarate solution), equal amounts of which are added to the test solution. After boiling, a positive result is indicated by the formation of a brick-red precipitate of copper(I) oxide. Methanal, being a strong reducing agent, also produces copper metal; ketones do not react. The test is now rarely used, having been replaced by Benedict’s test.

fructose    →   fruktoza

Fructose (fruit sugar) is a ketohexose (a six-carbon ketonic sugar), which occurs in sweet fruits and honey. Glucose and fructose have the same molecular formula, C₆H₁₂O₆, but have different structures. Pure, dry fructose is a very sweet, white, odorless, crystalline solid. Fructose is one of the sweetest of all sugars and is combined with glucose to make sucrose, or common table sugar. An older common name for fructose is levulose, after its levorotatory property of rotating plane polarized light to the left (in contrast to glucose which is dextrorotatory). The polysaccharide inulin is a polymer of fructose.

glycon    →   glikon

Glycon (glycone) is the sugar component of the glycoside. The link between the glycon and aglycon is known as glycosidic bond.

Graham’s law    →   Grahamov zakon

Graham’s law is the rates at whish gases diffuse are inversely proportional to the square roots of their densities. This principle is made use of in the diffusion method of separating isotopes. The law was formulated in 1829 by British chemist Thomas Graham (1805-1869).

glucose    →   glukoza

Glucose (grape sugar, blood sugar), C₆H₁₂O₆, is an aldohexose (a monosaccharide sugar having six carbon atoms and an aldehyde group). An older common name for glucose is dextrose, after its dextrorotatory property of rotating plane polarized light to the right. Glucose in free (in sweet fruits and honey) or combined form (sucrose, starch, cellulose, glycogen) is is probably the most abundant organic compound in nature. During the photosynthesis process, plants use energy from the sun, water from the soil and carbon dioxide gas from the air to make glucose. In cellular respiration, glucose is ultimately broken down to yield carbon dioxide and water, and the energy from this process is stored as ATP molecules (36 molecules of ATP across all processes).

Naturally occurring glucose is D isomers (OH group on the stereogenic carbon farthest from the aldehyde group, C-5, is to the right in the Fischer projection). Although often displayed as an open chain structure, glucose and most common sugars exist as ring structures. In the α form, the hydroxyl group attached to C-1 and the CH₂OH attached to C-5 are located on opposite sides of the ring. β-glucose has these two groups on the same side of the ring. The full names for these two anomers of glucose are α-D-glucopyranose and β-D-glucopyranose.

hemiketal    →   poluketal

Hemiketals are organic compounds having the structure R₂C(OH)OR (R ≠ H), derived from ketones by formal addition of an alcohol to the carbonyl group. The rings of ketose sugars are hemiketals. This term, once abandoned, has been reinstated as a subclass of hemiacetals.

glycoside    →   glikozid

Glycoside is one of a group of organic compounds in which a sugar group is bonded through its anomeric carbon to another group via a glycosidic bond. The sugar group is known as the glycon and the non-sugar group as the aglycon. According to the IUPAC definition, all disaccharides and polysaccharides are glycosides where the aglycone is another sugar.

In the free hemiacetal form, sugars will spontaneously equilibrate between the α and β anomers. However, once the glycosidic bond is formed, the anomeric configuration of the ring is locked as either α or β. Therefore, the alpha and beta glycosides are chemically distinct. They will have different chemical, physical, and biological properties. Many glycosides occur abundantly in plants, especially as flower and fruit pigments.

The term glycoside was later extended to cover not only compounds in which the anomeric hydroxy group is replaced by a group -OR, but also those in which the replacing group is -SR (thioglycosides), -SeR (selenoglycosides), -NR1R2 (N-glycosides), or even -CR1R2R3 (C-glycosides). Thioglycoside and selenoglycoside are legitimate generic terms; however the use of N-glycoside, although widespread in biochemical literature, is improper and not recommended here (glycosylamine is a perfectly acceptable term). C-Glycoside is even less acceptable. All other glycosides are hydrolysable; the C-C bond of C-glycosides is usually not. The use and propagation of names based on C-glycoside terminology is therefore strongly discouraged.

high fructose corn syrup    →   visoko fruktozni kukuruzni sirup

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is commonly used in place of sugar in foods and drinks. Corn starch is hydrolyzed to glucose, which is then treated with glucose isomerase to produce a fructose-rich mixture. HFCS is available in a number of forms, named according to the percentage of fructose they contain, HFCS-55 for instance contains 55 % fructose and 45 % glucose. The enhanced sweetness, low cost and ease of use are the main reasons why manufacturers now prefer to use high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar.

ketal    →   ketal

Ketals are organic compounds formed by addition of an alcohol to a ketone. If one molecule of ketone (RR’CO) reacts with one molecule of alcohol (R"OH) then a hemiketal is formed. The rings of ketose sugars are hemiketals. Further reaction produces a full ketal (RR’C(OR")₂). This term, once abandoned, has been reinstated as a subclass of acetals.