Xylose or wood sugar is an aldopentose - a monosaccharide containing five carbon atoms and an aldehyde functional group. It has chemical formula C5H10O5 and is 40% as sweet as sucrose. Xylose is found in the embryos of most edible plants. The polysaccharide xylan, which is closely associated with cellulose, consists practically entirely of d-xylose. Corncobs, cottonseed hulls, pecan shells, and straw contain considerable amounts of this sugar. Xylose is also found in mucopolysaccharides of connective tissue and sometimes in the urine. Xylose is the first sugar added to serine or threonine residues during proteoglycan type O-glycosylation. Therefore xylose is involved in the biosythetic pathways of most anionic polysaccharides such as heparan sulphate and chondroitin sulphate. In medicine, xylose is used to test for malabsorption by administering a xylose solution to the patient after fasting. If xylose is detected in the blood and/or urine within the next few hours, it has been absorbe

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