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The previous finding that only one half of a disaccharide molecule binds to the taste receptor site is fully substantiated but the linkage and the sugar residues of the disaccharide are important. The study is extended to the field of bitterness and it is observed that binding on to the bitter receptor is analogous to that on to the sweet receptor. With reducing disaccharides, it is the non-reducing glycosyl unit that binds to the taste bud protein. Therefore, oligosaccharides constitute ideal models for this study despite their free anomeric centres.

A range of carbohydrate derivatives containing a-ketoester functionality undergo efficient reductive loss of the acyloxy groups when treated with tri-n-butyltin hydride in refluxing benzene and in the presence of azoisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as radical initiator; under similar conditions, but with allyltri-n-butyltin instead of the hydride, efficient a-C-allylation takes place with axial substitution occurring preferentially in compounds with the ketoesters located within conformationally stable pyranoid rings; the methods represent novel ways of deoxygenating carbohydrate derivatives and of introducing branch points.

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