A type of sugar alcohol derived from a six-carbon sugar, commonly used as a sweetener and in pharmaceutical products.
From 'hex-' (six) and '-itol' (sugar alcohol suffix). The term emerged in 20th-century carbohydrate chemistry when scientists learned to convert six-carbon sugars into useful alcohols.
Xylitol and sorbitol are hexitols—they're the sugar substitutes in your sugar-free gum, and they exist because chemists figured out how to chemically 'reduce' six-carbon sugars into tooth-friendly alternatives.
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