This volume continues a remarkable series of annual publications that constitutes an essential reference collection for any scientists interested in the chemistry and biochemistry of carbohydrates. The series has been characterized by the judicious selection of topics and authors, meticulous editing, and excellent punting and production. These standards are maintained fully in the present volume.
A warm, sensitive, and comprehensive description of Dexter French's career has been prepared by one of his early students, John Pazur. This obituary not only presents a full and well-written account of French's multitudinous contributions to our knowledge about the chemistry and biochemistry of starch but also brings out the vigorous, zestful, and effervescent personality of the man. It will be much appreciated as a tribute to one of the most outstanding and well-known carbohydrate chemists of our time.
Stephen J. Angyal has written a superb chapter on the composition of reducing sugars in solution. The importance of rH-and r3C-n.m.r. spectroscopy for studies of the tautomeri~ behavior of sugars is clearly delineated, and numerical data are assembled conveniently in six tables at the end of the chapter. There is excellent discussion of the relative stabilities of various forms, and of the effects of inorganic compounds, substituents, temperature, and solvent.
The synthesis of branched-chain sugars is dealt with in a chapter by Juji Yoshimura, who provides an extensive description of the various reactions used and their stereoselectivities. The chapter concludes with a brief but interesting account of biological activity of branched-sugar nucleosides.
Another synthesis topic is covered in a chapter, by I-I, Yamamoto and S. Inokawa, on sugar analogs having phosphorus in the hemiacetal ring. Here, the authors cover the syntheses, structural analyses, and biological activities of monosaccharides having phosphinediyl or phosphonyl groups in the hemiacetal ring.
The usefulness of *3C-n.m.r. spectroscopy in the determination of carbohydrate structures is further advanced by a reference chapter on carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance data for oligosaccharides. K. Bock, C. Pedersen, and H. Pedersen have prepared this extension of an earlier chapter on monosaccharides (Vol. 41 of this series), and provided 22 tables of chemical-shift data for oligosaccharides, nicely organized by constituent monosaccharide(s), anomeric configuration, and linkage position.