Methyl α-d,l-sorboside.

The title compound, C7H14O6, was prepared from an equimolar mixture of d- and l-sorbose (d:l = 1:1) by Fischer glycosidation in methanol and crystallized from water. The title compound crystallizes in the ortho-rhom-bic space group Pna21. The asymmetric unit contains one mol-ecule each of methyl α-d-sorboside and methyl α-l-sorboside. In the crystal, the mol-ecules are linked by O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming a two-dimensional network parallel to (001).