Maltoside

A maltoside is a glycoside with maltose as the glycone (sugar) functional group. Among the most common are alkyl maltosides, which contain hydrophobic alkyl chains as the agylcone. Given their amphoteric properties, these comprise a class of detergents, where variation in the alkyl chain confers a range of detergent properties including CMC and solubility. Maltosides are most often used for the solubilization and purification of membrane proteins.
History.
In 1980 Ferguson-Miller "et al." at Michigan State developed "n"-dodecyl-β--maltopyranoside (DDM) as part of a successful effort to purify an active, stable, monodisperse form of cytochrome c oxidase. Maltosides have been used extensively to stabilize membrane proteins for biophysical and structural studies.