Abstract: Compounds having utility in medicine in countering cellular malfunction e.g. in conditions embraced by the general term "cancer", which compounds normally exist us a keto-enol tautomeric pair, the racetalc keto form of which is rapresented by formula (Ia), wherein R is a hydrogen, lower alkyl, acyl, or another functional group of up to 6 carbons including at least one hetero atom, which atom may be directly bonded to the .beta.-carbon, which compound may be in the acylic form shown or in a cyclic form as equilibrium keto-enol tautomer derivatives and anomeric forms thereof, including enantiomers when R is hydrogen and diastereoisomers when R is another group.