glyceraldehyde

chemical compound

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June 29, 2026

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Glyceraldehyde is a sweet, crystalline chemical compound with the formula C₃H₆O₃. It is an intermediate in carbohydrate metabolism, formed from the breakdown of sugars. Glyceraldehyde is the simplest example of an aldose sugar and is crucial for understanding stereoisomerism in carbohydrates.12

Stereoisomerism refers to molecules with the same formula but different spatial arrangements. Glyceraldehyde exists as two isomers, enantiomers, which are mirror images of each other, much like a left and right hand. These isomers have identical chemical and physical properties, except for their effect on polarized light, where one rotates it to the right (d-glyceraldehyde) and the other to the left (l-glyceraldehyde).2

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configuration
…convenience, assigned by correlation with glyceraldehyde, for which the following configurations (as represented by plane projection diagrams) have been determined:
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…convenience, assigned by correlation with glyceraldehyde, for which the following configurations (as represented by plane projection diagrams) have been determined:
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metabolism
Fragmentation of other sugars
…products are dihydroxyacetone phosphate and glyceraldehyde. It will be recalled that dihydroxyacetone phosphate is an intermediate compound of glycolysis. Although glyceraldehyde is not an intermediate of glycolysis, it can be converted to one (glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate) in a reaction involving the conversion of ATP to ADP.
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…products are dihydroxyacetone phosphate and glyceraldehyde. It will be recalled that dihydroxyacetone phosphate is an intermediate compound of glycolysis. Although glyceraldehyde is not an intermediate of glycolysis, it can be converted to one (glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate) in a reaction involving the conversion of ATP to ADP.
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carbohydrate
Stereoisomerism
…by the three-carbon aldose sugar glyceraldehyde. There is no way by which the structures of the two isomers of glyceraldehyde, which can be distinguished by the so-called Fischer projection formulas, can be made identical, excluding breaking and reforming the linkages, or bonds, of the hydrogen (―H) and hydroxyl (―OH) groups…
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…by the three-carbon aldose sugar glyceraldehyde. There is no way by which the structures of the two isomers of glyceraldehyde, which can be distinguished by the so-called Fischer projection formulas, can be made identical, excluding breaking and reforming the linkages, or bonds, of the hydrogen (―H) and hydroxyl (―OH) groups…
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