Though dihydroxy acetone is not optically active it is a carbohydrate. why...?
Answer:
i wouldn´t call it a carbohydrate. neither would IUPAC.
http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iupac/2carb/0...
but since is is a carbonyl derivative, with more than 1 OH group, i could see why one would might call it so.
furthermore, being optically active has nothing to do with something being a sugar or not.
If it is made entirely from C, H, and O then it is a carbohydrate.
being made from c, h, o is not enough to be called a carbohydrate. it should also fit the empirical formula CH2O and contain hydroxyl groups and one ketone/aldehyde group.
So dihydroxy acetone is HO-CH2-C(=O)-CH2-OH, which contains the hydroxy and ketone groups and has the formula C3H6O3 (empirical CH2O).
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