Sweet Structural Signatures Unveiled in Ketohexoses

The conformational behaviour of naturally occurring ketohexoses has been revealed in a supersonic expansion by Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy coupled with a laser ablation source. Three, two and one conformers of d ‐tagatose, d ‐psicose and l ‐sorbose, respectively, have been identified by their rotational constants extracted from the analysis of the spectra. Singular structural signatures involving the hydroxyl groups OH (1) and OH (2) have been disentangled from the intricate intramolecular hydrogen bond networks stabilising the most abundant conformers. The present results place the old Shallenberger and Kier sweetness theories on a firmer footing.