Reducing sugars and sodium hydroxide react with phthalonitrile and 4-methoxyphthalonitrile to form mixtures of the phthalocyanine and oligomers. The oligomers, obtained in yields up to 54%, were deduced to have a structure that is predominantly polyazine with the o-cyanophenyl group as a substituent from elemental analysis and spectral data. Since carbohydrate related compounds lacking the reducing linkage gave no products, it is suggested that the observed reactions require the a-hydroxycarbonyl grouping.