What sugars are ketoses?

A ketose is a monosaccharide containing one ketone group per molecule. The simplest ketose is dihydroxyacetone, which has only three carbon atoms, and it is the only one with no optical activity. All monosaccharide ketoses are reducing sugars, because they can tautomerize into aldoses via an aldol intermediate, and the resulting aldehyde group can be oxidised, for example in the Tollens' test or Benedict's test. read more

Aldose sugars that contain more than three carbon atoms possess stereoisomerism. There are more aldose sugars present than ketose sugars. A unique feature of the aldose sugar is the ability to react with an acid and base to form a cyclic ring. Ketose sugars can act as reducing agent and convert to aldose sugars. read more

Ketotriose Sugars. Ketotriose sugars are the simplest molecules of the ketose sugar family (See Reference 1, Page 236). These ketoses only have a three carbon backbone (See Reference 1, Page 236). There is only one ketotriose known in chemistry, called dihydroxyacetone (See Reference 3, Page 194). read more