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Carbohydrates
Carbohydrate is a group of organic compounds occurring in living tissues and foods in the form of starch, cellulose, and sugars. It is one of the three micronutrients via which a human body obtains energy. The properties of carbohydrate biology include carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms at their chemical level. Cn(H2O)n is the generic formula for all carbohydrates. This formula is only valid for simple sugars, which are made up of the same amount of carbon and water.
There are two types of carbohydrates, simple and complex. This division is primarily based on their chemical structure along with their degree of polymerization.
Simple Carbohydrates: Simple carbohydrates carry one or two molecules of sugar. Such examples of carbohydrates are found abundantly in dairy products, refined sugar, etc. Since these carbohydrates do not comprise any fiber, vitamin, or mineral, they are regarded as empty calories. Simple carbohydrates can be further divided into three categories. These are as follows:
Monosaccharides: Carbohydrates consisting of one sugar molecule are called monosaccharides. Monosaccharides can be further classified based on the number of carbon atoms. These are trioses, tetroses, pentoses, hexoses, and heptoses. One of the most significant monosaccharides is glucose. The following are the two most frequent methods for preparing glucose. Sucrose is converted to glucose and fructose when it is cooked with dilute acid in an alcohol solution. From Starch, Glucose can also be made by hydrolyzing starch and boiling it with weak sulphuric acid at 393 degrees Fahrenheit under high pressure. Glucose, commonly known as dextrose and aldohexose, is abundant on the planet.
Disaccharides: Two monosaccharides combine to form a disaccharide. Sucrose, Lactose, and Maltose are some of the prime examples of this carbohydrate.
Oligosaccharides: Carbohydrates consisting of 2-9 monomers are classified as oligosaccharides.
The term “monosaccharide” refers to a carbohydrate derivative possessing a single carbon chain; “disaccharide” and “trisaccharide” refer to molecules containing two or three such monosaccharide units joined together by acetal or ketal linkages. “Oligosaccharide” and “polysaccharide” refer to larger such aggregates, with “a few” and many monosaccharide units, respectively. Current usage seems to draw the distinction between “few” and many at around 10 units.
Complex Carbohydrate: Complex carbohydrates are made up of two or more molecules of sugar. Such carbohydrates are found abundantly in food items like corn, lentils, peanuts, beans, etc. Complex carbohydrates are also known as polysaccharides as they are formed due to polymerization.
Polysaccharides are another macromolecule family found in the acid-insoluble pellet. Polysaccharides are lengthy sugar chains. They're threads (literally, cotton threads) made up of various monosaccharides as building blocks. cellulose, for example, is a polymeric polysaccharide made up of only one type of monosaccharide, glucose. Cellulose is a homopolymer, which means it is made up of only one type of molecule. Starch is a type of this that is found in plant tissues as a source of energy. Glycogen is a different type of carbohydrate found in animals. Inulin is a fructose polymer. The right end of a polysaccharide chain (such as glycogen) is known as the reducing end, while the left end is known as the non-reducing end. It has branches. Secondary helical structures are formed by starch.In fact, the helical part of starch can retain I2 molecules. The colour of starch-I2 is blue. Because cellulose lacks complex helices, it is unable to retain I2.
Cellulose is the main component of plant cell walls. Cellulosic paper is created from plant pulp and cotton fibre. In nature, there exist more complicated polysaccharides. Amino-sugars and chemically modified sugars are used as building blocks (e.g., glucosamine, N-acetyl galactosamine, etc.). Arthropod exoskeletons, for example, contain a complex polymer called chitin. The majority of these complex polysaccharides are homopolymers.
