Perspectives in the use of low molecular weight carbohydrates as organic raw materials

Abstract

Carbohydrates represent 95% of the annually renewable biomass, yet their vast potential as organic raw materials for chemical industry is mostly unexploited. The challenge posed by the necessity to increasingly replace fossile raw materials by those annually regrowing is obvious: systematic basic and applied research for opening up new, non-food application fields for carbohydrates in general and for mono- and disaccharides in particular, as these are more suited for straightforward chemical transformations. - This account gives an overview on recent efforts towards the conversion of inexpensive, bulk-scale accessible mono- and disaccharides - most notably glucose, fructose, sucrose, and isomaltulose - into products with potential industrial application profiles. Thereby, the practicality of the conversion methodologies is emphasized such as the use of simple reactions, of inexpensive reagents, and, if not avoidable altogether, of simple protecting groups in the "reaction channels" leading from sugars to industrially relevant products, in addition to aiming for stable, readily purificable compounds and useful overall yields. Also discussed are the perspectives towards the desired substitution of petrochemicals by those derived from carbohydrates, by "glycochemicals", so to say. Prospects are bright, yet, in their outcome, strongly depend on the actions taken - by academic groups, by funding institutions, and, most importantly, by chemical industry - for the further systematic, broad scale exploitation of high and low molecular carbohydrates towards products with industrially viable property profiles.