Thread: Which carbon?
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Old March 14th, 2005, 10:45
john500 john500 is offline
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I am not a sugar chemistry expert and I don't remember much of the organic chemistry of them. Furthermore, I don't have access to an organic chemistry textbook or Jerry March's book either. Thus, I am winging it. I suspect that you can not selectively reduce the 2'-hydroxyl group in one step with any known reducing agents. Most likely, if you were do to this in a lab, you would have to use protecting groups and several synthetic steps and get your product in low yield. Biologically, an enzyme in living organisms is probably responsible for the conversion.