The York Research Database

Carbohydrate steroid hybrids (steroid glycosides, glycosyl steroids and related compounds) are ubiquitous natural products, with immense structural diversity. They also show a common feature of being amphiphilic in character, which will be the major subject reviewed in this chapter. It will be preceded by an introduction on the occurrence and properties of glycosteroids, and their classification into three main sub-families based on their overall molecular shape and polarity where systems have: (i) one saccharidic part and one steroidal part, possibly including a spacer chain; (ii) saccharidic connections at two different points of the steroid, and (iii) an additional appendage that can be either polar or non-polar.