Synthesis of glucose

[CyberNeko]

As the topic says, I'm curious as to how to synthesize glucose. I haven't been able to find much other than there are some methods to do such.

[tharkûn]

It is not normally done. Commericial glucose production is normally done by mixing a vat of starches (amylose and amylopectin), adding some enzymes (typicly glucoamylase), and then proceeding to complete hydrolysis.

There a host of ways to produce glucose from chemical precursors and depending on what you start with it can be challenging or trivial. In many cases the precursor chemicals were themselves derived from commericially produced glucose.

At the most basic start - carbon dioxide and water - it is most efficient to use a biological system to build up via photosynthesis.

[CyberNeko]

It may be more efficient to use biological system, but I'm more interested in non-biological and synthesizing from scratch.

[Trytostaydead]

Well, if you want.. I guess you can do things in discrete steps using precusors and enzymes of gluconeogenesis?

[CyberNeko]

Well, if you want.. I guess you can do things in discrete steps using precusors and enzymes of gluconeogenesis?

Aren't the enzymes biological componments? That would be nice idea but I'm more looking for technological solution that don't involves nanotechnology.

[tharkûn]

It may be more efficient to use biological system, but I'm more interested in non-biological and synthesizing from scratch.

What do you mean by scratch?

Carbon dioxide and water? Petroleum and oxygen?

In any event you have the problem that glucose has four chiral centers so it will take one massive catalyst to get the steriochem correct. Most likely it will have to be one of those screwy multi transition metal catalysts or maybe even some lanthanide crap. Nobody ever does this because instead of spending thousands of dollars a gram on inorganic catalysts you can harvest natural catalysts for pennies. Enzymes are nothing more than extremely large, efficient, and specific catalysts.

You other shot would be to build up some really nasty multicyclic lactam compound so that when you undergo hydrolysis it comes out with the right stereo chem.

Doing what you want is PhD level chemistry and would take thousands of man-hours for batch chemistry. Continious flow would be akin to those pharmaceutical headaches.

Aren't the enzymes biological componments?

Depends on how you define things. They are proteins, but they are not in any way shape or form "alive". You can synthesize them from completely abiotic precursors but that is a real pain in the ass.

A couple liters of bacterial solution can produce enough enzymes to catalyze commercial sized vats.

Why exactly do you want to do this in ass backwards fashion?

[Admiral Valdemar]

I have to say, I don't see why you'd want to avoid the industry standard and go for flow vats that are used to produce everything from Factor VIII to insulin or soft drink additives. Abiotic ways of making biotic products will inevitably be inefficient.

[CyberNeko]

I'm just interested in how it could be done without involving bacteria and enzymes. And by from scratch, it would be simple substance such as carbon dioxide and water, or any other simple compounds and elements.

Yes I know it's inefficient as hell and such, but I want to know if it was technically possible, and if there was any known processes. I've heard those stuff are complex as hell, but I'm really interested.


Btw, I'm just doing a bit of research for a story, and idea of total biological self-containment keeps comes up, as in cyborgs and such. I was just curious if there was any technological way to do it.

[tharkûn]

I was just curious if there was any technological way to do it.

Theoreticly yes. Most of the chiral inorganic catalysts were made or purified using biological substances somewhere back upstream. This is one of the perplexing things about life; at a molecular level all life is "left handed" and abiotic random processes show little or no handed preference. To date I know of no chiral substances that were made without somewhere down the line a biologicly derived material imparting chirality.

[CyberNeko]

I was just curious if there was any technological way to do it.

Theoreticly yes. Most of the chiral inorganic catalysts were made or purified using biological substances somewhere back upstream. This is one of the perplexing things about life; at a molecular level all life is "left handed" and abiotic random processes show little or no handed preference. To date I know of no chiral substances that were made without somewhere down the line a biologicly derived material imparting chirality.

Well that may be a problem, does the enzyme method avoids that problem of having random preference? And could such enzyme be synthesized easily or would an culture of organism be needed to produce glucose of proper kind?

[tharkûn]

Well that may be a problem, does the enzyme method avoids that problem of having random preference?

All amino acids are left handed, stereochem is 100% non-random.

And could such enzyme be synthesized easily or would an culture of organism be needed to produce glucose of proper kind?

Relatively easy synthesis. Protect the N terminus of you methionine group, protect the C terminus of your next amino acid, mix the two and run a condesation reaction. De-protect the C-terminus and give it another round. Once you have the all the amino acids incorporated you de-protect the N terminus of the methionine group and then heat shock or whatever to get the enzyme into the correct tertiary structure.

The entire process is quite adaptable to automation and continious flow; several companies currently do costum synthesis using a variety of techniques.

In order to do this you would need chiral amino acids, which can be made quite easily with facile chiral catalysts (though somewhere back in human history they used a biological chiral catalyst to make something that went into making these catalysts).