Re: What the names of monosaccharides come from

That's a pretty good question. I have wondered that myself. Anyway, after much searching I came across a web site (linked below) that briefly discusses the matter and provides historical references.

You were pretty much there when figuring out the origin of the names of sugars. Many of the sugars are named after where they are obtained. For example, "Traubenzucker" (glucose) stood for grape sugar and "Rohrzucker" (saccharose) for cane sugar. "Fruit sugar" was termed fructose which was also named "laevulose" (becasue it was laevorotatory).

Eventually, with names like dextrose (because glucose is dextrorotatory) and fructose the standard addition of "-ose" to the end of sugar naming became standardized.

See the second link for a fuller description of the terms "laevorotatory" and "dextrorotatory".

The following links below provide far more information about the topic:

http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iupac/2carb/00n01.html

http://www.chemguide.co.uk/basicorg/isomerism/optical.html

-Cheers!

-Mike