Illustrated Glossary of Organic Chemistry

L: (1) A carbohydrate that has the same stereocenter absolute configuration at the second-to-last carbon in its chain (in acyclic form) as (S)-glyceraldehyde (also called L-glyceraldehyde). Note that when 'L' is used to denote relative configuration of a carbohydrate, it is of a smaller font than the name of the carbohydrate.




(S)-Glyceraldehyde
(L-glyceraldehyde)
  
L-Glucose is the enantiomer of D-glucose.

(2) An α-amino acid having the absolute configuration shown below. Called L because this amino acid enantiomer can (in principle) be synthesized from L-glyceraldehyde.




L-serine
  
L-glyceraldehyde