Aldohexoses have 4 chiral centers, or 16 (24) stereoisomers possible. Does that mean they have 16 individual sugar names?

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Answer 1 · 2014-12-24T03:32:01

Yes, there are 16 individual sugar names.

An aldohexose has four chiral centres.

So there are #2^4 = 16# optical isomers.

The 8 D-aldohexoses are shown below.

Their mirror images are the L-aldohexoses, the other 8 of the 16.

Their names are L-allose, L-altrose, L-glucose, etc.

Hence, each of the 16 aldohexoses has its own name.