Inositol is a sugar:
Most sugars are aldehydes and ketones, and they zip up into rings in solution on their own, forming rings with oxygens that look like substituted ethers. Inositol is a funny one - an enzyme has to do the work and make a cyclohexane, which won't fall apart without some metabolic heavy lifting.
Because the metabolism is a little inefficient, sugar alcohols like inositol have found some use as low-glycemic or slightly lower-calorie sweeteners (some are innately extra-sweet). It's a unique handle for an enzyme to grab, so its derivatves pop up throughout metabolism.
You may also recognize it as one of the ingredients in energy drinks of questionable benefit (Read: everything but caffeine).
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(This is an intro to a n upcoming entry.)
When I was an undergrad, working in a lab at McGill, my then boss Morag Park would joke that Phosphoinositides were at the center of the universe.
See this entry for background on inositols. Inositol-6-phosphate (aka Inositol hexaphosphate, phytic acid, phytate) is a strange compound.
I've been really busy of late. Over the summer I have been mentoring two students, Gloria who sadly left us for Danesh Moazed's lab (a great choice if you ask me) and Lesley who will be leaving next week to work in a lab at Duke.
Phytic acid is an inositol derivative:
technically you're wrong, if its based on a cyclohexane it can't be a sugar... its a poly-alcohol. It might still be sweet, it might still be a carbohydrate but it can't be a sugar. ok, enough wise-assery from me, i'll go back to enjoying you're posts in silence
I believe Inositol has the stereochemistry shown here: http://motd.chemspider.com/Chemical-Structure.10239179.html
AS you can see we made MOTD a special ChemSPider subset now.
Is Inisotol helpful for PCOS sufferers