MOLECULE

L-Arabinose

Arabinose or L-arabinose is an aldopentose, a monosaccharide with an aldehyde functional group. Although most saccharides have the D-form, arabinose is most abundant in the L-form. It is colorless with a prism or needle like crystal that is very soluble in water. It has a sweet taste. It is one of the most abundant components released after complete hydrolysis of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) from vegetables. However, NSPs which include cellulose, hemi-cellulose, pectin, and oligosaccharides, are complicated compounds both in physical structure and chemical composition. The NSPs are resistant to the digestive enzymes and pass to the hindgut where microbial degradation takes place. When L-arabinose is ingested, it is absorbed from the intestinal tract at a lower rate than glucose with a portion excreted in the urine. Although widely present in nature, L-arabinose is rarely used, and its physiological effects in vivo have received little attention. L-arabinose selectively inhibits intestinal sucrase activity in a non-competitive manner and suppresses the plasma glucose increase after sucrose ingestion (PMID: 8931641). Because the intestinal absorption of sucrose is inhibited in the presence of L-arabinose, the absorption of sucrose should be reduced by arabinose ingestion. Most of the studies reported so far on the absorption and utilization of L-arabinose have been with non human omnivore animal (PMID:11238761; PMID: 1390604).. In a rare published case, two autistic brothers, with no known metabolic disease, had nearly six times greater L-arabinose(179 µmol/mmol creatinine) in their urine compared to normal children (PMID: 7628083). L-Arabinose was elevated in the CSF and urine of patients with ribose-5-phosphate isomerase deficiency, which is an inborn error of metabolism (PMID: 14988808). L-Arabinose is also a microbial metabolite found in Mycobacterium (PMID: 16232643). Arabinose is a major monosaccharide sugar found in cannabis plants (PMID: 6991645).