Melibiose

Melibiose is a disaccharide made of galactose joined to glucose through an alpha-1,6 bond, structurally close to common table sugar but far less familiar in the diet. It is produced when raffinose is hydrolyzed and occurs in some plant materials, legumes, and processed sugar products. Roughly one-third as sweet as sucrose, melibiose is not used as a commercial sweetener, but it interests food scientists because humans digest it poorly, which gives it potential as a low-calorie sugar and as a candidate prebiotic substrate for beneficial gut bacteria. In carbohydrate research it also serves as a reference standard in analytical methods, where its distinctive linkage helps calibrate detectors and columns used in sugar profiling.