Category: sugar
Aliases: Mycose, alpha,alpha-Trehalose, alpha,alpha-D-Trehalose, alpha-D-Glucopyranosyl alpha-D-glucopyranoside, D-(+)-Trehalose
A non-reducing disaccharide of two glucose units joined by an α,α-1,1-glycosidic bond, where both anomeric carbons are mutually engaged so the ring stays closed and resists Maillard browning. In the gut it is hydrolysed by brush-border trehalase to two molecules of glucose, which are then absorbed by SGLT1 and GLUT2 and enter normal glycaemic and insulin handling identically to other dietary glucose; the parent sugar itself is not absorbed intact in meaningful amounts. Trehalase is the rate-limiting and frequently low-abundance step, so unhydrolysed trehalose reaching the colon is fermented by microbiota, producing gas, short-chain fatty acids and an osmotic load. Its high glass-transition temperature and water-replacement hydrogen bonding underlie its industrial role as a cryo- and desiccation-protectant for proteins and foods.
Non-reducing glucose-glucose disaccharide; ~45% as sweet as sucrose. JECFA ADI "not specified"; US GRAS and an authorised EU novel food (no assigned E-number). Generally well tolerated, but low intestinal trehalase activity causes osmotic/fermentative GI symptoms; the trehalase deficiency that is otherwise rare in humans is comparatively common in Greenlandic Inuit, where the enzyme is expressed in only ~10-15% of the population (i.e. the great majority are trehalase-deficient). Glycaemic load after hydrolysis is glucose-equivalent.