The formose reaction
The formose reaction is a complex reaction network in which formaldehyde is consumed and a diversity of sugars are produced. Formaldehyde had been found as a key intermediate in the famous Miller experiments, and it was known that the formose reaction proceeds autocatalytically. Breslow had explained its autocatalytic nature by a model in which glycolaldehyde - a molecule that consists of two formaldehyde units - is the autocatalyst.
[2] In each cycle the number of glycolaldehyde molecules are doubled by the splitting of aldotetroses, viz. molecules consisting of 4 formaldehyde units synthesized from glycolaldehyde by formaldehyde uptake. All steps in the autocatalytic cycle are reversible reactions based on aldol-reactions and endiolate based isomerizations.
