Summary of D-glucofuranose question



 Dear CCLers,
      I have had a number of useful responses to my question on the existence
 of D-glucofuranose and associated energetic considerations.  These are
 summarized below, with a bit of editorial comment included in brackets ([]).
 I hope some find this of use and of interest.     -Shaun
 ORIGINAL QUESTION...
                          ...Perhaps someone 'in the know' would be kind
 enough to enlighten me.  That is, D-glucopyranose is always represented to
 be the most stable form of glucose (dextrose).  However, what about D-
 glucofuranose?  I've done some crude Hudson-type calculations, but was
 never able to convince myself that the furanose form was not unstable and
 that it should exist, probably; but, I've never seen it described.  What's
 the real story?  Enlightenment appreciated.
 SUMMARY...
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 ITEM 1: From:  caldwell # - at - # utdallas.edu  (Richard A. Caldwell) 1/20/93
 Suttie, "Introduction to Biochemistry," Holt, Rinehart, and Winston,
 New York, 1972, p 24, says:
 The ... furanose ring form of glucose is a less stable form and only a very
 small amount is present in the equilibrium mixture.  There are, however,
 appreciable amounts of the furanose form present in the equilibrium solution
 of galactose and some of the rarer hexoses.
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 ITEM 2: From:  mes # - at - # atlas.chemistry.uakron.edu (Mary Ellen Scott)
 1/20/93
 I'm not in the know, but I work with sugars.  I have seen proton and
 carbon 13 NMR data that give ratios of pyranose, furanose, cyclic and I
 think hydrated forms of aldo and keto sugars.  Are you determining stability
 by heat of formation?  I have done Mopac calculations on alpha/beta glucose
 pyranose form but not furanose.  What I would like to determine is the
 amount of acyclic form of fluorinated glucose derivatives vs glucose.
 If you have any suggestions please email.
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 ITEM 3: From:  toni # - at - # athe.wustl.edu (Toni Kazic) 1/20/93
 ...what is a Hudson calculation? ...  [Some simple 'wysiwyg' rules to semi-
 quantitatively assess the stability of sugar conformers .  E.g., axial -OH gets
 1 'demerit', axial -CH2OH gets 2 demerits, axial -CH2OH and axial C-1 or 3 OH
 get 2.5 demerits, and 3 clustered O torsionally along C1,2 gets 2.5 demerits;
 in addition to the classical 'most positive optical rotation is the alpha
 anomer'.]
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 ITEM 4: From:  rwoods # - at - # biop.ox.ac.uk (Bob Woods) 1/21/93
 A quick check in "Carbohydrate Chemistry. Monosaccharides and their
 Oligomers"
 by H.S.El Khadem, Academic Press, 1988 shows:
 Composition of Aqueous Solutions of D-Aldoses at Equilibrium
 ------------------------------------------------------------
 Aldose            total % pyranose      total % furanose
 ------------  ----------------------  ----------------------
 Allose                87                    8.5
 Altrose               67                   33.0
 Glucose              100                   <0.3
 Mannose              100                    0.0
 Gulose                78                   22.0
 Idose                 75                   25.0
 Galactose             93                    7.0
 Talose                69                   31.0
 Ribose                80                   20.0
 Arabinose             97                    4.5
 Xylose                99.5                 <0.5
 Lyxose                98.0                  2.0
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 I think you have raised a very interesting question; however, I am not
 aware of a suitable explanation of the variations.
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 ITEM 5: From:  nauss # - at - # wrair-emh1.army.mil (Jeff Nauss) 1/21/93
 As an addendum to Shaun Black's request for information about glucofuranose, I
 have a small project on-going concerning a molecular dynamics simulation of
 galactofuranose.  I would also be interested in experiences others have had
 with modeling carbohydrates and especially furanose forms.
 I have quite a bit already on ribose and deoxyribose but virtually nothing
 on any other furanose.
 Any suggestions on useful carbohydrate-oriented force fields?
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 ITEM 6: From:  WTWINTER # - at - # SUVM.acs.SYR.EDU  (Bill Winter) 1/21/93
 I believe that Adam Allerhand from Univ Indiana published NMR results in the
 1970's confirming the coexistence of a small percentage of glucofuranose in the
 equilibrium mixture in D2O.
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   = Shaun D. Black, PhD     | Internet:  shaun%jason.decnet # - at - #
 relay.the.net =
   = Dept. of Biochemistry   | Bitnet:    shaun%jason.decnet # - at - #
 thenic.bitnet =
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