The proton and carbon nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) resonances have been assigned for 3A-amino-3A-deoxy-(2AS,3AS)-a-, b-and c-cyclodextrins (CyDs) (3a, 3b and 3c). In these CyDs, a glucose residue has been replaced by an altro-pyranose unit with an axial hydroxyl group. Assignments were made with one-dimensional NMR and COSY, TOCSY, ROESY and CHSHF (heteronuclear shift correlation) spectra. Titration by NMR shift changes gave amino-group pK a values of 7.73 and 8.84 for 3b and 6A-amino-6A-deoxy-b-CyD (6b), respectively. Polymer Journal ( Keywords: altro-cyclodextrin; hydrogen bonding; NMR; structural assignment; titration
INTRODUCTIONCarbohydrates are key recognition elements in biological processes. However, in most cases, the role of carbohydrates and the detailed mechanisms of these events are still poorly understood. It seems that a clear model of the structure of carbohydrates is very important for understanding the role of carbohydrates in these processes. Carbohydrates look much simpler than other biomolecules as they differ from each other mainly by stereochemistry. However, carbohydrates actually have much more information capacity than proteins because they vary by linkages and stereochemistry and can be branched. The structure determination of complex oligosaccharides involves discovering the primary structure, stereochemistry, sequence, linkages and anomeric configurations; thus, it is actually a very challenging problem.Cyclodextrins (CyDs) are naturally occurring cyclic carbohydrates consisting of 6-8 glucopyranosyl residues linked by a-1,4 glycosidic bonds. They have a hydrophobic cavity and form inclusion complexes with various guest molecules in aqueous solution and solid state.