Xylose or wood sugar is an aldopentose — a monosaccharide containing five carbon atoms and including an aldehyde functional group. It has chemical formula ₅₁₀₅. Xylose is found in the embryos of most edible plants.

In animal medicine, xylose is used to test for malabsorption by administering to the patient in water after fasting. If xylose is detected in blood and/or urine within the next few hours, it has been absorbed by the intestines.^[1] After Xylose has been catalytically hydrogenated, it turns into a natural sugar substitute called Xylitol. This new sugar, along with Xylose itself, is a reducing sugar.

Xylose is also the first saccharide added to the serine or threonine in the proteoglycan type O-glycosylation (and so it is the first saccharide in biosythetic pathways of most anionic polysaccharides like heparan sulphate, chondroitin sulphate,...)^[2]

See also

• Xylose metabolism
• Arabinose
• Deoxyribose
• Lyxose
• Ribose
• Ribulose
• Xylulose

References

1. ↑ MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia: D-xylose absorption
2. ↑ Buskas T, Ingale S, Boons GJ, "Glycopeptides as versatile tool for glycobiology", Glycobiology, vol.16, no.8, pp. 113R-136R, 2006