Biosynthesis of food constituents: Saccharides. 1. Monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, and related compounds – a review

Abstract

This review article presents a survey of selected principal biosynthetic pathways that lead to the most important monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, sugar alcohols, and cyclitols in foods and in food raw materials and informs nonspecialist readers about new scientific advances as reported in recently published papers. Subdivision of the topics is predominantly via biosynthesis. Monosaccharides are subdivided to sugar phosphates, sugar nucleotides, nucleotide-glucose interconversion pathway sugars, nucleotide-mannose interconversion pathway sugars, and aminosugars. The part concerning oligosaccharides deals with saccharose, trehalose, raffinose, and lactose biosynthesis. The part devoted to sugar alcohols and cyclitols includes the biosynthetic pathways leading to glucitol, inositols, and pseudosaccharides. Extensively used are reaction schemes, sequences, and mechanisms with the enzymes involved and detailed explanations employing sound chemical principles and mechanisms.