Arabinose

Arabinose is an aldopentose &mdash; a monosaccharide containing five carbon atoms, and including an aldehyde (CHO) functional group. It has chemical formula C5H10O5 and a molar mass of 150.13 g/mol.

Isomerism
For biosynthetic reasons, saccharides are almost always more abundant in nature as the "D" form, or structurally analogous to D-(+)-glyceraldehyde. However, L-arabinose is in fact more common than D-arabinose in nature and is found in nature as a component of biopolymers such as hemicellulose and pectin. The L-arabinose operon is a very important operon in molecular biology and bioengineering.

A classic method for the organic synthesis of arabinose from glucose is the Wohl degradation.