THE ACID HYDROLYSIS OF GLYCOSIDES: I. GENERAL CONDITIONS AND THE EFFECT OF THE NATURE OF THE AGLYCONE

First-order rate coefficients and energies and entropies of activation have been determined for the acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of a number of methyl D-glycopyranosides and disaccharides. The relation between the logarithm of the rate coefficients and values for Hammett's acidity function was linear, although different for different acids. All compounds had entropies of activation indicating a unimolecular reaction mechanism. Glucosides of tertiary alcohols were hydrolyzed very rapidly, triethylmethyl β-D-glucopyranoside, for example, 30,000 times taster than the corresponding methyl compound.Increase in size of the aglycone caused a slight increase in the rate of hydrolysis of β-D-glucopyranosides, steric hindrance thus being of no significance. Electron-attracting substituents in the aglycone had little or no influence on the rate of hydrolysis, obviously because they would tend to lower the equilibrium concentration of the conjugate acid, while facilitating the subsequent heterolysis, the two opposing effects more or less cancelling out. These results were discussed in connection with recent studies on the acid hydrolysis of various phenyl glycopyranosides and with reference to the postulated occurrence of an activating inductive effect in oligo- and poly-saccharides containing carboxyl or other electronegative groups at C-5. It was concluded that there is little evidence for the existence of any such effect and that, for example, pseudoaldobiouronic acids should be hydrolyzed at the same rate as corresponding neutral disaccharides.