Samavia G. answered • 09/09/21
+8 years of Experienced Biology Tutor (Columbia graduate)
Epimers are diastereomers that differ in the configuration of atoms attached to a chiral carbon whereas anomers are a type of epimers that differ in position at the anomeric carbon (carbon derived from the carbonyl carbon compound (ketone or aldehyde) of the open-chain carbohydrate).
α means that the hydroxyl group is carbon-1 is below the plane of the ring and β means that the hydroxyl group is above the plane of the ring.
Alpha D-glucose and beta D-glucose are enantiomers (non-superimposable mirror images) as they differ in the position of the hydroxyl group at carbon 1. Beta D-glucose has five chiral carbons but has no plane of symmetry so it is not an epimer.
Hence, alpha D-glucose and beta D-glucose are anomers as they differ at carbon 1 only.
