inositol

In biochemistry, medicine, and related sciences, inositol generally refers to '''myo-inositol (formerly meso-inositol'), the most important stereoisomer of the chemical compound cyclohexane-1,2,3,4,5,6-hexol. Its formula is ; the molecule has a ring of six carbon atoms, each with a hydrogen atom and a hydroxy group (–OH). In myo-inositol, two of the hydroxyls, neither adjacent nor opposite, lie above the respective hydrogens relative to the mean plane of the ring.

The compound is a carbohydrate, specifically a sugar alcohol (as distinct from simple sugars like glucose) with half the sweetness of sucrose (table sugar). It is one of the most ancient components of living beings with multiple functions in eukaryotes, including structural lipids and secondary messengers. A human kidney makes about two grams per day from glucose, but other tissues synthesize it too. The highest concentration is in the brain, where it plays an important role in making other neurotransmitters and some steroid hormones bind to their receptors. In other tissues, it mediates cell signal transduction in response to a variety of hormones, neurotransmitters, and growth factors and participates in osmoregulation. In most mammalian cells the concentrations of myo-inositol are 5 to 500 times greater inside cells than outside them.