Question

Carbohydrates are polyhydroxy aldehydes or ketones that represent enormous structural diversity in terms of the arrangement of atoms in space, resulting in hundreds of stereoisomers. Although the chemical properties of most stereoisomers may not be very different, their metabolic rate and utilization in biological systems is significantly different and known to influence the overall carbohydrate metabolism. Structural variants, which arise due to a different arrangement of atoms in three-dimensional space are known as stereoisomers. The number of stereoisomers can be theoretically estimated by using the formula 2n, where 'n' is the number of stereocenters or asymmetric (chiral) carbon atoms in a molecule. Out of these stereoisomers, there are some structures, which are mirror images of each other, and they are referred to as enantiomers. Answer the following questions :