NMR spectroscopy in the study of carbohydrates: Characterizing the structural complexity

Abstract The combination of structural diversity at several levels and limited chemical shift dispersion ensures that NMR spectra of carbohydrates are relatively difficult to interpret. This introduction to applications of NMR spectroscopy for the study of carbohydrates provides guidelines for interpretation of their 1‐ and 2‐D spectra against a background of their tautomeric, configurational, and conformational equilibria in solution and consideration of their biosynthetic diversity. The influence of structural features on chemical shifts and coupling constants is illustrated by the consequences for both homo‐ and heteronuclear 2‐D NMR spectra. Some applications of NMR spectroscopy for studies of carbohydrate metabolism are briefly considered. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Concepts Magn Reson 19A: 1–19, 2003.