Tuesday, December 11, 2012 at 11:06AM
Drew Wolfe

Cyclodextrin

"Cyclodextrins (sometimes called cycloamyloses) are a family of compounds made up of sugar molecules bound together in a ring (cyclic oligosaccharides)."

"Cyclodextrins are produced from starch by means of enzymatic conversion. They are used in food, pharmaceutical,[1] drug delivery,[2] and chemical industries, as well as agriculture and environmental engineering. Hydroxypropyl Beta Cyclodextrin (HPβCD) is the chief active compound found in Procter and Gamble's deodorizing product "Febreze" under the brand name "Clenzaire"."

"Cyclodextrins are composed of 5 or more α-D-glucopyranoside units linked 1->4, as in amylose (a fragment of starch). The 5-membered macrocycle is not natural. Recently, the largest well-characterized cyclodextrin contains 32 1,4-anhydroglucopyranoside units, while as a poorly characterized mixture, at least 150-membered cyclic oligosaccharides are also known. Typical cyclodextrins contain a number of glucose monomers ranging from six to eight units in a ring, creating a cone shape."

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