Thangamuthu Mohan Das

Carbohydrates are considered as one of the three primary macronutrients in the realm of food and nutrition in the daily human diet. In addition to being a source of food, they encompass a vast category of natural products, along with synthetic bio‑mimics, which have found suitable applications in therapeutics and drug design. The present review discusses the importance of carbohydrates for a healthy diet, their sources from plants and animals, and their classification. Information on the biological and chemical changes in carbohydrates in the human body, as well as their therapeutic and drug‑design applications, is also provided. The present review provides a narrative review and perspective, integrating nutritional, biochemical and therapeutic perspectives on carbohydrates. The objective was to provide an updated, interdisciplinary overview that connects dietary carbohydrate intake with metabolic processes and emerging medicinal applications.

Iodide sensing has a crucial role in clinical research and synthetic chemistry. However, its detection using small molecular receptors is not well explored compared to metal‐organic framework systems, which are laborious to synthesize and characterize. Here, we report the facile synthesis and selective detection of iodide by a series of substituted benzoate‐linked 4,6‐ O ‐benzylidene‐ N ‐glucosylamines exhibiting good gelation with aliphatic and aromatic solvents (0.5%w/v CGC in aromatic solvents) and gel‐sol transition in the presence of iodide (0.3%w/v) without external interference. The self‐assembly systems were characterized through FE‐SEM, DSC, variable temperature ¹ H NMR studies, and DFT calculations, where the driving force for gel formation was found to be H‐bonding, π ‐ π stacking, and van der Waals force of interactions. The solution phase iodide sensing was done using colorimetry, UV‐Vis spectroscopy, and ¹ H NMR titration, where the iodide–sugar interaction was found to be through CH···I ⁻ and Hbonding, again supported by DFT calculations.

Due to the compatibility of binding and undergoing chemical modification of sugar derivatives with a variety of scaffolds, the design of innovative tools for bio-sensing and bio-marking, energy harvesting, drug design, and delivery is growing steadily. Furthermore, the chemistry of partially protected sugars has not been explored well in terms of its applications in smart materials. However, these sugar derivatives possess a unique characteristic balance between hydrophilic and hydrophobic nature, which makes them act as gelator molecules. Several synthetic strategies pertaining to synthesis and applications are known in the literature. The present review mainly focuses on the partially protected monosaccharide- based N-glycosylamines and their applications, with few examples from Oand C-glycosides.

A multifunctional isoniazid‐sugar–triazole based Schiff‐bases were designed and synthesized, and their sensing capability was studied with various metal ions by colorimetric, absorption, and spectrofluorometric techniques. Interestingly, the molecule processing diethylamine moiety ( 11 ) shows fluorescent “turn‐on” chemosensor properties in the presence of Zn ²⁺ and Mn ²⁺ . The limit of detection (LOD) values of the chemosensor toward the respective metal ions were 3.37 µM and 1.46 µM, with a 1:2 stoichiometric ratio, respectively. Compound 11 was successfully applied to effectively detect Zn ² ⁺ and Mn ² ⁺ in real water samples. Additionally, a logic gate was constructed, where the fluorescence intensity served as the output signal, responding to the chemical species as the inputs. Synthesized compounds were screened for their antibacterial activities against a panel of pathogenic bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes , and E. coli . All the compounds showed significant activities against these pathogens. The anticancer activity of compound 13 was investigated in human osteosarcoma (HOS) cells. MTT assay results revealed that the hybrid sugar derivative exhibited cytotoxicity against the HOS cell line, with increased potency observed at a concentration of 60 µg/ml.

Cu(I)-catalyzed azide−alkyne 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition (CuAAC) - commonly known as the “click reaction” - serves as the most effective and highly reliable tool for facile construction of simple to complex designs at the molecular level. It relates to the formation of carbon heteroatomic systems by joining or clicking small molecular pieces together with the help of various organic reactions such as cycloaddition, conjugate addition, ring-opening, etc. Such dynamic strategy results in the generation of triazole and its derivatives from azides and alkynes with three nitrogen atoms in the five-membered aromatic azole ring that often forms gel-assembled structures having gelating properties. These scaffolds have led to prominent applications in designing advanced soft materials, 3D printing, ion sensing, drug delivery, photonics, separation, and purification. In this review, we mainly emphasize the different mechanistic aspects of triazole formation, which includes the synthesis of sugar-based and non-sugar-based triazoles, and their gel applications reported in the literature for the past ten years, as well as the upcoming scope in different branches of applied sciences.

Smart supramolecular photoresponsive azobenzene-based sugar organogelators are reported, which can be used to remove aromatic solvents from the aqueous organic solvent mixture and can also effectively remove cationic dyes.