Potential effect of ultrasound on carbohydrates

• The energy obtained from ultrasound-induced acoustic cavitation enhances the rate of reaction.
• Ultrasound is quite effective in decreasing the reaction time from days to minutes.
• Moderate to excellent stereoselectivity is observed in the synthesis of complex oligosaccharides.
• Ultrasound assists the chemo- and regioselective functionalization of carbohydrates.
• Sonication shows excellent results in different bond-forming reactions of carbohydrate molecules.

The use of ultrasound has emerged as one of the most useful alternative energy sources for the synthesis of carbohydrate-derived biologically and pharmaceutically potential compounds. Spectacular advances have been made in the field of sonication-assisted organic reactions, which are known for producing superior yields, enhanced reactivity of the reactant, improved stereoselectivity, and shortened reaction times. Orthogonal protection-deprotection reactions and/or modification and manipulation of functional groups in carbohydrates are common synthetic steps in carbohydrate chemistry. These reaction steps can be driven by the ultrasonic energy generated by acoustic cavitation via the formation and subsequent collapse of ultrasound-induced bubbles. The ultrasound–assisted synthesis of differently functionalised monosaccharides is useful in a wide variety of applications of carbohydrate chemistry such as the glycosylation of oligosaccharides, one pot domino reactions, thioglycoside syntheses, azidoglycoside syntheses, 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions, and syntheses of natural products. This review article covers ultrasound-mediated reactions on carbohydrates that have been described in the literature since 2000.

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