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Specialty Chemistry Forums => Other Sciences Question Forum => Topic started by: jena on November 10, 2005, 12:22:19 PM

Title: Which Enzyme to use
Post by: jena on November 10, 2005, 12:22:19 PM
Hi,

In order to reduce a sugar to a alcohol, would use an reductase to do this?

Thank You :)


EDIT: spelling mistake - enyme -> enzyme
Title: Re:Which Enyme to use
Post by: Mitch on November 10, 2005, 01:18:38 PM
I thought sugars were already alcohols?
Title: Re:Which Enyme to use
Post by: Yggdrasil on November 11, 2005, 03:35:46 PM
Yes, sugars are polyhydroxylated, so they can definitely be considered alcohols already.  However, in biochemistry a sugar alcohol is a sugar in which the aldehyde or ketone function in the sugar has been reduced to an alcohol.

Yes, an oxidoreductase would be the class of enzyme to catalyze such a reaction.
Title: Re:Which Enyme to use
Post by: constant thinker on November 13, 2005, 09:14:52 PM
I thought the only thing that made a sugar a sugar was the double bond O on one of the carbons. The rest didn't matter. With respect to the other functional groups of organic chemistry of course.

If you break the double bond O and take that bonding spot that was just freed and added a H thento it then you have an alcohol.
Title: Re:Which Enyme to use
Post by: billnotgatez on November 13, 2005, 09:39:08 PM
constant thinker -
You might want to read these 2 sites before discussing sugar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glucose
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucrose
Title: Re:Which Enyme to use
Post by: constant thinker on November 14, 2005, 09:12:12 PM
Sorry...  :-[

..but is it not the double bonded O that makes a sugar a sugar. This is in respect to things like the COOH and other functional groups.