[1] Mannoheptulose is a competitive and non-competitive inhibitor of both hexokinase and the related liver isozyme glucokinase.

[2][3][4] By blocking the enzyme hexokinase, it prevents glucose phosphorylation, the first step in the fundamental biochemical pathway of glycolysis.

[7] This inhibition occurs because when mannoheptulose is present the glycolysis is inhibited (because there is no production of glucose-6-P) therefore no increase in ATP concentration which is required to close the KATP channel in the beta cells of the pancreas causing a diminution of calcium entry and insulin secretion.

[1] Heptoses can make up over a tenth of the tissue dry weight of the avocado tree.

[1] Though the carbohydrate is thought to be produced during photosynthesis[8] the precise biological pathway for the synthesis of mannoheptulose was unknown as of 2002.