Abstract
Hydration sites of the acetal segment were studied in five of the most stable conformers of 2‐methoxy‐tetrahydropyran (MTHP) as the first step in the determination of the hydration scheme of glycosides. The intramolecular geometries of a supermolecule formed with MTHP and water were calculated by a PCILO quantum‐chemical method. The hydration sites determined can be classified into two groups: (a) individual sites, in which water interacts with one oxygen only, and (b) bridging sites, in which water interacts with both oxygens. The interaction energies of the individual sites are approximately 22 kJ mol^−1^, and 26 and 29 kJ mol^−1^ in the bridging sites. An increase of the number of water molecules in the hydration shell of MTHP showed that monohydration of the glycosidic linkage oxygens was most advantageous. Despite of the fact that the hydration shell have various structures in the individual MTHP conformers, the obtained results indicate that the hydration does not operate against the anomeric or exoanomeric effects, i.e., it does not influence the equilibrium of the MTHP conformers in favor of the trans arrangements of a glycosidic bond. Therefore, the experimentally observed stabilization of the trans positions in aqueous solutions should be considered as a result of influence of water being a dielectric continuum.