Metabolism of sugar, illustration. Here, the sugar (red, a simple monosaccharide, initially shown at top as sugar cubes) is turned into chiral amino alcohols (bottom) via a direct biocatalytic reaction. Amino alcohols (also called alkanolamines) contain amino functional groups, similar to amino acids found in proteins. A chiral molecule is one that is optically active and has a mirror image. Most biomolecules are chiral.