Zeitschrift für Proteomik und Enzymologie

Rare Sugars: Applications and Enzymatic Production

Shuang-Yan Tang

Rare Sugars: Applications and Enzymatic Production

Rare sugars are monosaccharides and their derivatives rarely existing in nature. Of all hexoses and pentoses, only seven (D-glucose, D-galactose, D-mannose, D-fructose, D-xylose, D-ribose and L-arabinose) are present in significant amounts in nature. Despite their low natural abundance, rare sugars have various known biological functions and enormous potential for applications in pharmaceutical, cosmetics, food and flavour industries.