Question
Asked 6 January 2020

Osmotically active substances?

Is there a list of osmotically active substances available anywhere?
We know that osmolality will rise in the presence of monosaccharides (glucose, fructose, and galactose), oligosaccharides (sucrose, lactose, maltotriose), dextrose, sorbitol, urea, ethanol, methanol, glycol, mannitol, glycine, acetone, formaldehyde. What about other osmotically active substances?

Most recent answer

Monika Klimek-Tulwin
Medical University of Lublin
I've found a very new publication. There's a DOI link that you can click on it, for those who might be interested:

Popular answers (1)

Gangli Zhu
Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics (LICP), Chinese Academy of Sciences
Osmosis is the movement of a solvent through a semi-permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration.
Thus, osmotically active substances can be defined as the solutes cannot pass the given semi-permeable membrane.
Therefore, your question of " can we say that each substance with the same organic functional group is osmotically active? ". I think the answer is NO. It depands on the nature and 'pore- size' of membrane and solutes.
3 Recommendations

All Answers (10)

Gangli Zhu
Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics (LICP), Chinese Academy of Sciences
Osmosis is the movement of a solvent through a semi-permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration.
Thus, osmotically active substances can be defined as the solutes cannot pass the given semi-permeable membrane.
Therefore, your question of " can we say that each substance with the same organic functional group is osmotically active? ". I think the answer is NO. It depands on the nature and 'pore- size' of membrane and solutes.
3 Recommendations
Ruaa M.Saleh Al-Alwany
University of Anbar
Osmosis is a vital process in biological systems, as biological membranes are semipermeable. In general, these membranes are impermeable to large and polar molecules, such as ions, proteins, and polysaccharides, while being permeable to non-polar or hydrophobic molecules like lipids as well as to small molecules like oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and nitric oxide. Permeability depends on solubility, charge, or chemistry, as well as solute size. Water molecules travel through the plasma membrane, tonoplast membrane (vacuole) or protoplast by diffusing across the phospholipid bilayer via aquaporins (small transmembrane proteins similar to those responsible for facilitated diffusion and ion channels). Osmosis provides the primary means by which water is transported into and out of cells. The turgor pressure of a cell is largely maintained by osmosis across the cell membrane between the cell interior and its relatively hypotonic environment.
1 Recommendation
Monika Klimek-Tulwin
Medical University of Lublin
Serdar Yuksel, unfortunately, I can't find this article anywhere...
Juan Laiuppa
Universidad Nacional del Sur
"Osmosis is the movement of a solvent through a semi-permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration"
Technically, is the movement of WATER. Still, i think is a pretty good answer.
I recommend it.
Juan Laiuppa
Universidad Nacional del Sur
I can´t find the article recommended by Yuksel neither. But, i did find that it is in russian. I think you can request it here, in researchgate.
Juan Laiuppa
Universidad Nacional del Sur
Last answer. Sorry, i get obsessed sometimes. This is the best answer i read, in my opinion.
Harasit Kumar Paul
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University
I agree with Juan Laiuppa.
Monika Klimek-Tulwin
Medical University of Lublin
I've found a very new publication. There's a DOI link that you can click on it, for those who might be interested:

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