Erythrose is a tetrose saccharide with the chemical formula C4H8O4. It has one aldehyde group, and is thus part of the aldose family. The natural isomer is D-erythrose; it is a diastereomer of D-threose.

Erythrose was named after the sugar alcohol erythritol (Erythrit), from which it was first synthesized in 1887 by Emil Fischer and Julius Tafel.

Erythrose 4-phosphate is an intermediate in the pentose phosphate pathway and the Calvin cycle.

Oxidative bacteria can be made to use erythrose as its sole energy source.

Although often inconsequential, erythrose in aqueous solution mainly exists as the hydrate owing to the following equilibrium:

Unrelated compound

An unrelated compound, initially also named "erythrose", was isolated in 1849 from nitrated rhubarb by the French pharmacist Louis-Félix-Joseph Garot (1798–1869), and was named as such because of its red hue in the presence of alkali metals (ἐρυθρός, "red").. This unrelated substance from rhubarb is identical to the nitrated anthraquinone chrysaminic acid (Chrysaminsäure, ).

See also

• Erythritol

• Erythrulose

References