A nucleoside is a compound in which a purine or pyrimidine base is bound via a N-atom to C-1 replacing the hydroxy group of either 2-deoxy-D-ribose or of D-ribose, but without any phosphate groups.The common nucleosides in biological systems are adenosine, guanosine, cytidine, and uridine (which contain ribose) and deoxyadenosine, deoxyguanosine, deoxycytidine and thymidine (which contain deoxyribose).