JEE Main Chemistry question

Dihydroxyacetone () has the general formula of a carbohydrate but is not included in this class because:

(A)It does not contain a polyhydroxy group
(B)It does not contain an aldehyde group
(C)It is not optically activeCorrect
(D)All of the above

Answer: (C)

Solution

Dihydroxyacetone's central carbon bears two identical groups attached to the carbonyl, so it has no chiral centre and is optically inactive; many classification schemes for monosaccharides implicitly expect chirality (as in glyceraldehyde, the reference first sugar), and this lack of optical

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Question ID VK-150884