Aldohexoses have 4 chiral centers, or 16 (24) stereoisomers possible. Does that mean they have 16 individual sugar names?

1 Answer
Dec 24, 2014

Yes, there are 16 individual sugar names.

Explanation:

An aldohexose has four chiral centres.

So there are #2^4 = 16# optical isomers.

The 8 D-aldohexoses are shown below.

AldohexosesAldohexoses
(From sandwalk.blogspot.com)

Their mirror images are the L-aldohexoses, the other 8 of the 16.

Their names are L-allose, L-altrose, L-glucose, etc.

Hence, each of the 16 aldohexoses has its own name.