Organic chemistry help: what is the difference between an alpha and beta carbohydrate?

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organic chemistry
lovslinky asked:


I don’t understand the difference between alpha and beta. Also, what is the difference between the L and D carbohydrates? The “D’s” have OH on the right, correct?

When I draw from fisher to haworth, how do I know if OH goes up or down in the haworth?

If anyone knows this, thank you so much!

Xavier

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 9:50 am and is filed under Chemistry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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One Response to “Organic chemistry help: what is the difference between an alpha and beta carbohydrate?”

  1. orgopete Says:
    November 25th, 2008 at 2:21 pm

    The get four carbon sugar with glyceraldehyde as we get four in the mirror images of the very first chirality center its configuration is consistent for all sugars as their absolute configuration is common to compare.