Trehalose

• 99-20-7 ( α, α -D -trehalose )
• 585-91-1 ( α, β -D -trehalose )
• 6138-23-4 ( α, β -D -trehalose dihydrate)
• 499-23-0 ( β, β -D -trehalose )
• 25018-27-3 ( trehalose octaacetate )

Colorless solid

Fixed

• 214-216 ° C. ( α, α -D -trehalose )
• 149 ° C ( α, β -D -trehalose )
• 135-140 ° C ( β, β -D -trehalose )

• Soluble in water and hot ethanol
• Insoluble in diethyl ether

Dihydrate

Template: Infobox chemical / molecular formula search available

(Also known as mycosis ) Trehalose is a disaccharide (obsolete disaccharides ) which, α' -1 ,1- glycosidically linked glucose molecules is composed of two α. Therefore, its systematic name is 1- α -glucopyranosyl- 1- α - glucopyranoside, in the short formula: Glc α (1 → 1) α Glc. Because both the anomeric carbon atoms involved in the O- glycosidic bond, trehalose is one of the non-reducing sugars.

Occurrence

Trehalose occurs naturally in various plants and fungi and also in the hemolymph of many insects. In plants, it is one of the reserve materials. It can be removed from the human by means of the localized in the small intestine trehalase into D-glucose.

For bacteria, trehalose is essential: only by accumulation of trehalose can stress situations such as drought survive without their proteins denature. Corynebacteria and mycobacteria also build yet trehalose as a component of glycolipids in their outermost cell wall layer, where it facilitates the penetration into the host organism in pathological germs.

Function / Applications

Trehalose is also known as natural antifreeze. In tardigrades ( Tardigrada ), the significant increase in the intracellular trehalose concentration for cryopreservation. In various tissues of the artificial addition of trehalose, in combination with other substances (e.g., DMSO ) for cryopreservation.

Particularly in insects is the main reserve sugar trehalose, and inhibition of trehalase by hypoglycemia can lead to death, what you make use of the fact in insect control.