Whereas trimers and tetramers of beta-C-D-arabinofuranosyl carbohydrate amino acids adopt well defined conformations based around a repealing beta-turn like structure, stabilised by (i, i-2) inter-residue hydrogen bonds, there is no indication of any secondary structure in the tetramer of the epimeric alpha-C-D-arabinoluranosyl carbohydrate amino acid, where the C-2 and C-5 substituents of the tetrahydrofuran ring are Irans to each other. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.