Glycoside

Article By:

Hay, George W. Department of Chemistry, Queen's University, Ontario, Canada.

Last reviewed:January 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.293500

A large important class of sugar derivatives in which the sugar is combined with a nonsugar. In their cyclic forms, monosaccharides (simple sugars) possess one carbon (C) atom (the anomeric carbon) that is bonded to two oxygen (O) atoms; one oxygen atom forms a part of the ring, whereas the other is outside the ring (exocyclic) and is part of a hydroxyl (OH) group. If the oxygen atom of the anomeric hydroxyl group becomes bonded to a carbon atom, other than that of a carbonyl (CO) group, the resulting compound is a glycoside. A glycoside thus consists of two parts (Fig. 1a): the sugar (glycosyl) unit, which provides the anomeric carbon, and the moiety (the aglycon), which is the source of the exocyclic oxygen and carbon atoms of the glycosidic linkage. Such compounds frequently are referred to as O-glycosides to distinguish them from analogs having a sulfur (thio- or S-glycosides), nitrogen (amino- or N-glycosides), or carbon (anomalously called C-glycosides) as the exocyclic atom on the anomeric carbon. See also: Hydroxyl

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