Aldonic acids are sugar acids with the general chemical formula, HO2C(CHOH)nCH2OH. They are obtained by oxidizing the aldehyde (-CHO group) of an aldose to form a carboxylic acid (-COOH group).[1] Aldonic acids are generally found in their ring form. However, these rings do not have a chiral carbon at the terminal end bearing the aldehyde, and they cannot form R−O−R′ linkages between different molecules.[2]
The nomenclature of aldonic acids and their lactones is based on replacing the suffix "-ose" with "onic acid" or "onolactone". Hence, D-glucose is oxidized to D-gluconic acid and D-gluconolactone.[3]