Kinetics and Mechanism of Oxidation of Some Simple Reducing Sugars by Permanganate Ion in Alkaline Medium

The kinetics of oxidation of glucose, galactose, fructose, maltose and sucrose by alkaline permanganate anion has been studied. The reactions studied spectrophotometrically over a wide range of experimental conditions show that the rate of the reactions is enhanced by increase in pH, ionic strength, and temperature as well as the reactant concentrations. The mechanism has been proposed to proceed via the formation of enediol intermediate complexes and the order of reactivities of the sugars is fructose > glucose ≈ galactose > maltose > sucrose. The activation parameters were evaluated and lend further support to the proposed mechanism