Carbohydrate chemistry and biochemistry: structure and mechanism

Carbohydrates are important in biology because of their role in energy trafficking (starch, glycogen), as structural materials (cellulose, chitin) and as informational structures, often attached to proteins or lipids. Common physico-chemical rules govern much of their reactivity, whether in free solution or in an enzyme active site Likewise, common conformational rules govern the behaviour of small oligosaccharides and of large polysaccharide aggregates. This text is aimed at providing researchers in the chemistry, biochemistry or processing of carbohydrates with enough background between the same covers to enable them to address their own research problems. The (ambitious) aim is to do for carbohydrate science what ES Gould or CK Ingold did for organic chemistry in general a couple of generations ago. This monograph is aimed at providing researchers new to the subject with information on the structure and mechanisms in the chemistry, biochemistry or processing of carbohydrates. The book contains everything the reader needs to know about a non-synthetic carbohydrate research project