The presence of saccharides is being reported for aerosols taken in urban, rural, and marine locales. The commonly found primary saccharides are alpha- and beta-glucose, alpha- and beta-fructose, sucrose, and mycose with lesser amounts of other monosaccharides. Saccharide polyols are also found in some airsheds and consist mainly of sorbitol, xylitol, mannitol, erythritol, and glycerol. In temperate climate areas these compounds increase from negligible concentrations in winter aerosols (usually dominated by levoglucosan and related anhydrosaccharides from biomass burning) to a maximum in late spring-summer, followed by a decrease to winter. The composition of the saccharide mixtures suggests soil and associated microbiota as the source. Saccharide analyses of soils confirmed these compositions. Therefore, we propose resuspension of soil (also unpaved road dust) from agricultural activities as a major component of aerosol particles and the saccharides are the source specific tracers. In addition, the saccharides as well as the anhydrosaccharide derivatives from biomass burning are completely water soluble and thus contribute significantly to the total water-soluble mass of aerosols.

Sugars--dominant water-soluble organic compounds in soils and characterization as tracers in atmospheric particulate matter.

Analysis of sugars in environmental samples by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Ribose is the central molecular subunit in RNA, but the prebiotic origin of ribose remains unknown. We observed the formation of substantial quantities of ribose and a diversity of structurally related sugar molecules such as arabinose, xylose, and lyxose in the room-temperature organic residues of photo-processed interstellar ice analogs initially composed of H2O, CH3OH, and NH3 Our results suggest that the generation of numerous sugar molecules, including the aldopentose ribose, may be possible from photochemical and thermal treatment of cosmic ices in the late stages of the solar nebula. Our detection of ribose provides plausible insights into the chemical processes that could lead to formation of biologically relevant molecules in suitable planetary environments.

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Ribose and related sugars from ultraviolet irradiation of interstellar ice analogs

Production and structural characterization of the exopolysaccharide of the Antarctic fungus Phoma herbarum CCFEE 5080.

Characterization of neutral sugars and uronic acids after methanolysis and trimethylsilylation for recognition of plant gums

Equilibrium tautomers of aldopentoses (arabinose, ribose, xylose and lyxose) and aldohexones (allose, altrose, gulose, idose and talose) have been analyzed as their trimethyl-silyl ethers by capillary GC. Pentoses were separated on SE-54 and hexoses on OV-225. The four components of the tautomer equilibrium mixture have been identified using GC/MS and NMR data.

A. García-Raso

Papers

Identification of the components of aldoses in a tautomeric equilibrium mixture as their trimethylsilyl ethers by capillary gas chromatography

Gas chromatographic behaviour of carbohydrate trimethylsilyl ethers: I. Aldopentoses

Gas chromatographic behaviour of carbohydrate trimethylsilyl ethers

Gas chromatographic retention of carbohydrate trimethylsilyl ethers : III. Ketohexoses☆

Gas chromatographic retention of carbohydrate trimethylsilyl ethers. IV. Disaccharides.