Ethereal glycoconjugated azodyes (GADs): A new group of water-soluble, naturalised dyes

This report deals with azodyes naturalised through glycoconjugation with a very common saccharide - lactose - and with its galactose and glucose components. The conjugation takes place through a bifunctional linker, here a terminal dibromo-alkane, so the final products are very stable diether derivatives of the starting dyes. These transformations produce naturalised dyes - indeed, water-soluble and multipurpose that are able to dye different materials without addition of chemical additives such as surface agents. ((C) Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2008).