D-Arabinose (D-Ara) is a reducing rare sugar. It is a substrate for by D-arabinose dehydrogenase (ARA) and participated in D-erythroascorbic acid synthesis in S. cerevisiae. D-Erythroascorbic acid (eAsA) is an important antioxidant molecule in yeast. It was found, that ARA 2p, not ARA 1p, mainly contributes to the production of eAsA. Recently was published the first report of biological of D-Ara. It was compared the growth inhibitory effects of aldohexose stereoisomers against the animal model Caenorhabditis elegans cultured in monoxenic conditions with Escherichia coli as food. The inhibitory effect of D-Ara was also observed in animals cultured in axenic conditions using a chemically defined medium; this excluded the possible influence of E. coli. Among these stereoisomers, the D-Ara showed particularly strong growth inhibition. The assumption was made pointing, that the inhibition could be induced by multiple mechanisms, for example, disturbance of D-ribose and D-fructose metabolism.