Short and Sweet: D-Glucose to L-Glucose and L-Glucuronic Acid

The scarcity and expense of access to L‐sugars and other rare sugars have prevented the exploitation of their biological potential; for example D‐psicose, only recently available, has been recognized as an important new food. Here we give the definitive and cheap synthesis of 99.4% pure L‐glucose from D‐glucose which requires purification of neither intermediates nor final product other than extraction into and removal of solvents; a simple crystallization will raise the purity to >99.8%. Short and sweet: The synthesis of 99.4 % pure L‐glucose and L‐glucuronic acid from D‐glucose via very inexpensive sodium glucoheptonate requires no purification of either intermediates or final products, other than extraction into and removal of solvents; a simple crystallization will raise the purity to >99.8 %. New diacetonides of glucose and glucuronolactone are reported.