pinitol

1. (organic chemistry) A cyclitol with antidiabetic activity, first identified in the sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana).Examples: "Galactosylononitol and galactosyl pinitol A could also substitute for galactinol in the synthesis of stachyose from raffinose (Peterbaur and Richter, 1998; Hoch et al, 1999; Fig. 5.2, equations 10 and 11)."; "The reader can once more appreciate the lack of suitable language to describe these design principles; the thought process that led to the enantiodivergent synthesis of pinitols was far less arduous than the attempts to verbalize it."; "The use of B. spectabilis leaves as an antidiabetic led to the isolation of its hypoglycaemic principle, pinitol, from the leaves (Narayanan et al. 1987). Pinitol was determined to be a methyl ester of chiro-inositol and elucidated as 3-O-methyl1,2,4-cis-3,5,6-trans-hexahydroxycyclohexanol."countableuncountable