CHAPTER VI
GLUCOSIDES
Strictly speaking, the term glucoside should be applied only to such compounds as contain glucose as the characteristic basic group. But in common usage, it refers to any compound which, when hydrolyzed, yields a sugar as one of the products of the hydrolysis. In all the natural glucosides which occur in plant tissues, the other organic constituent, which is represented by the R in the formula for glucosides (R·C6H11O5, or R·(CHOH)5CHO) is some aromatic group, or closed-ring benzene derivative.[3] The different organic constituents of glucosides are of a great variety of types, such as phenols, alcohols, aldehydes, acids, oxyflavone derivatives, mustard oils, etc. It is noteworthy, however, that no nitrogenous groups of the protein type have been found combined with sugars in glucosides.
Some glucosides contain more than one saccharide group, possibly as di- or trisaccharides. Under proper conditions of hydrolysis, one or more of the saccharide groups can be removed from such compounds, resulting in glucosides of simpler structure.
Most of the common glucosides are derived from d-glucose. Some are known, however, which are derivatives of galactose or rhamnose; while in some cases the exact nature of the sugar which is present has not yet been determined.
FOOTNOTES:
The structural formula for benzene, C6H6,
