Dodecahydroxycyclohexane

Dodecahydroxycyclohexane is an organic compound with molecular formula C6O12H12 or C6(OH)12 or (C(OH)2)6. It is a sixfold geminal diol with a cyclohexane backbone and can be regarded as a sixfold hydrate of cyclohexanehexone (C6O6).

Dihydrate
The dihydrate C6O12H12*2H2O can be crystallized from methanol as colorless plates or prisms, that decomposes at about 100 °C. This compound was synthesized by J. Lerch in 1862 by oxidation of benzenehexol C6(OH)6 or tetrahydroxy-p-benzoquinone C6(OH)4O2 and characterized by R. Nietzki and others in 1885, although the product was for a long time assumed to be hexaketocyclohexane with water of crystallization (C6O6*8H2O).

Indeed, this product is still commonly marketed as cyclohexanehexone octahydrate, hexaketocyclohexane octahydrate, triquinoyl octahydrate and similar names. Its true nature was suspected since the 1950s or earlier, but was confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis only in 2005.