A reductone is a special class of

organic compound In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. T ...

s. They are enediols with a carbonyl group adjacent to the enediol group, i.e. RC(OH)=C(OH)-C(O)R. The enediol structure is stabilized by the

resonance Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied Periodic function, periodic force (or a Fourier analysis, Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system ...

resulting from the tautomerism with the adjacent carbonyl. Therefore, the

chemical equilibrium In a chemical reaction, chemical equilibrium is the state in which both the Reagent, reactants and Product (chemistry), products are present in concentrations which have no further tendency to change with time, so that there is no observable chan ...

produces mainly the enediol form rather than the keto form. Reductones are

reducing agents In chemistry, a reducing agent (also known as a reductant, reducer, or electron donor) is a chemical species that "donates" an electron to an (called the , , , or ). Examples of substances that are commonly reducing agents include the Earth meta ...

, thus efficacious antioxidants. Some are fairly strong acids. Examples of reductones are tartronaldehyde, reductic acid and ascorbic acid.

References

{{reflist Biosynthesis Functional groups Metabolism Reactive intermediates 3-Hydroxypropenals Enediols