It is a sweet, colorless, crystalline solid that is an intermediate compound in carbohydrate metabolism.

It was by a lucky guess that the molecular D- geometry was assigned to (+)-glyceraldehyde in the late 19th century, as confirmed by X-ray crystallography in 1951.

[5] The description above focuses on classification of isomers, but the glyceraldehyde is subject to a further complications: the tendency of hydroxy-aldehydes to exist as hydrates.

[7] Monosaccharides with an absolute configuration identical to (R)-glyceraldehyde at the last stereocentre, for example C5 in glucose, are assigned the stereo-descriptor D-.

[10] Glyceraldehyde is a precursor to four-carbon sugars (tetroses) via cyanation followed by hydrolysis of the cyanohydrin:[4] The enzyme glycerol dehydrogenase (NADP+) has two substrates, glycerol and NADP+, and 3 products, D-glyceraldehyde, NADPH and H+.