Deoxygenation

Abstract

When one or more hydroxy groups in saccharides, aldoses, or ketoses are replaced by a hydrogen atom, the resulting compounds are referred to as deoxy sugars. Deoxy sugars of this type are found in many naturally occurring oligosaccharides, more commonly as deoxyaldoses than as deoxyketoses. Three of them are particularly important: (i) L-rhamnose (6-deoxy-L-mannose) found in plant and also in bacterial polysaccharides; (ii) L-fucose (6-deoxy-L-galactose) found in animals, microorganisms, and plants; (iii) 2-deoxy-D-ribose, a component of deoxyribonucleic acids and thus very widely spread in the animal kingdom [1, 2].