稀有糖为存在于自然界但含量很少的单糖及其衍生物,虽然稀有糖含量少,较难获取,但不同种的稀有糖具有各自不同的生理功能,可以应用于食品、医药、营养、农药、精细化工等众多领域,每年的全球交易量超过1.5亿吨.近些年来,科学家研究发现稀有糖及其核苷衍生物具有巨大的应用前景,正逐渐成为研究的热点.该文综述了已报道的稀有糖的生理活性:除了可取代传统甜味剂外,还具有抗肿瘤、抗氧化、抗炎、抑菌、抗病毒和神经保护作用等多种功能.虽然稀有糖研究意义重大,但其来源不足和高成本限制了其应用价值的深度挖掘,文章在此基础上对稀有糖合成方法进行了展望,指出生物催化技术是实现稀有糖绿色合成的重要手段.“,”Rare sugars are referred to as monosaccharides and their derivatives,which rarely exist in nature and are difficult to be acquired.Nonetheless,different kinds of rare sugars have different physiological functions and can be applied in many areas such as foodstuffs,pharmaceutical industry,nutrition,pesticide,fine chemical industry.And the global trade volume is more than 1.5 tons every year.In recent years,the interest in rare sugars and the nucleosides derived from them has been substantially increased in medicine because there is a bright application prospect for these molecules.The broad physiological activities of rare sugars commonly reported are summarized as follows:replacing the traditional sweeteners,antitumor,antioxidant,anti-inflammatory,antibacterial,antiviral and so on.In spite of the great significance of rare sugar research,insufficient sources and high cost limit the depth of mining its application value;on the basis of the prospect of synthesis methods of rare sugars,it is indicated that biocatalysis technology is an important method to realize the green synthesis of rare sugars.