Carbadisaccharide 5, containing a 2-acetamido-5a-carba-2-deoxyhexopyranosylamine residue, was synthesized by coupling of methyl 4-amino-4-deoxy-a-D-glucopyranoside (41) with the N-(2,4-dinitrophenyl)epimino compound 16 followed by deprotection. The 6'-acetamido-6'-deoxy analog 3 of a potent a-glucosidase inhibitor methyl acarviosin (1) was synthesized from a condensate 50 obtained by coupling of 41 with the protected epimino compound 18, possessing an exomethylene function. This process involves a sequence of reactions: replacement by a benzoate ion and successive dehydrobromination of the dibromide 52 obtained from 50. Hydroxymercuration of 50 followed by demetalation and deprotecThe carbocyclic analog of hexopyranoses, Sa-carbahexopyranosesL21 were found in biologically active substances: antibiotic validamycin~[~] and a-glucosidase inhibitorsL4I, in which they are linked to the sugar or the cyclitol moiety via an imino function, namely a ,,pseudo-N-glycosidic linkage". In order to elucidate the structure-inhibitory activity relationship of the inhibitors of this kind, we have so far synthesized several of methyl acarviosinL61 (1) and its 1 '-epimerL71 2, and carried out their biological assay with some sugar hydrolases.In continuation of our research program, we were interested in preparing carbaoligosaccharides[81 related to the common core structures of the oligosaccharides occurring in cell-surface glycans [']. Since 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-Dhexopyranoses having mainly galacto and gluco configurations are important components of such oligosaccharide structures, we first attempted to prepare versatile precursors 16 and 18 of 2-acetamido-5a-carba-2-deoxyglucopyranosylamine, which may be introduced into the oligosaccharide chains as an imino-linked carbasugar residue instead of that of the true sugar congener. In this paper are described first the preparation of the 5a-carba-1,2-dideoxy-1,2-epiminohexopyranose derivatives 15, 16, 17, and 18 and their transformation into useful precursors of amino-5a-carbadeoxyhexopyranosylamines by substitution reaction with an azide ion. tion gave two carbadisaccharide analogs 3 and 9 containing the valiolamine-type branched aminocyclitol moieties. The free amines 4, 6, 8, and 10 were prepared by treatment of the corresponding N-protected derivatives with Amberlite IRA 400 (OH-) resin. Biological assays of all carbadisaccharides were carried out with three sugar hydrolases. Only compounds 6 and 8 were shown to be very weak a-mannosidase inhibitors. The introduction of the acetamido or amino function instead of the hydroxyl group into the C-6' position of the methyl acarviosin analog 2 resulted in an appreciable decrease of the inhibitory activity.