Towards improving the utility of ketoses as organic raw materials Review Article

Although three ketoses are bulk scale-accessible and inexpensive, i.e. d-fructose, l-sorbose, and isomaltulose, their utilization as organic raw materials in chemical industry is modest—not surprising in fact, as their chemistry has not developed at a rate comparable with the other common monosaccharides. This account gives an overview over older and very recent efforts of chemically transforming these three ketoses into building blocks with industrial application profiles, be it bulk, fine, or specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals, or simply enantiopure building blocks for organic synthesis.