Patent ID: 8445670

Claim:
A method of synthesizing a stereochemically defined iminocyclitol comprising reacting a cyclic sugar containing an intraring oxygen with a reagent comprising NH 3 , wherein said reacting results in replacing the intraring oxygen in the cyclic sugar by an intraring nitrogen to form an iminocyclitol, wherein said iminocyclitol has a defined stereochemical configuration different from a stereochemical configuration of the cyclic sugar, wherein a ring size of said iminocyclitol is the same as a ring size of said cyclic sugar and wherein said nitrogen forms an imine group —N═ in said iminocyclitol, wherein the cyclic sugar is an aldopentose in a 4-deoxy 1,4 furanose form, an aldohexose in a 4-deoxy 1,4 furanose form or an aldohexose in a 2,5-dideoxy pyranose form and wherein the cyclic sugar is substituted at the C1 position by R 1 , wherein R 1 is an alkyl group comprising from 1 to 20 carbon atoms.