Highly Efficient and Selective Hydrogenation of Sugars Catalyzed by Ru-MACHO-BH: Practical Synthesis of Sugar Alcohols

A highly efficient synthesis of sugar alcohols was achieved by selective hydrogenation with a homogeneous catalyst. Ru-MACHO-BH, the PNHP-ruthenium catalyst, promoted the hydrogenation with extremely high reactivity and selectivity. The reaction could be applied to various kinds of mono- and disaccharides and has been successfully run on a scale of several tens of grams.