Cabohydrates

A carbohydrate is an organic compound with the empirical formula Cm(H2O)n (where m could be different from n); that is, consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with a hydrogen:oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water). However, there are exceptions to this. One common example would be deoxyribose, a component of DNA, which has the empirical formula C5H10O4. Carbohydrates can be viewed as hydrates of carbon, hence their name. Structurally however, it is more accurate to view them as polyhydroxy aldehydes and ketones.

 The carbohydrates (saccharides) are divided into four chemical groupings: monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides. . In general, the monosaccharides and disaccharides, which are smaller (lower molecular weight) carbohydrates, are commonly referred to as sugars

 For example, blood sugar is the monosaccharide glucose, table sugar is the disaccharide sucrose, and milk sugar is the disaccharide lactose .

Uses of carbohydrates
Carbohydrates perform numerous roles in living things. Polysaccharides serve for the storage of energy (e.g., starch and glycogen), and as structural components (e.g., cellulose in plants and chitin in arthropods). The 5-carbon monosaccharide ribose is an important component of coenzymes (e.g., ATP, FAD, and NAD) and the backbone of the genetic molecule known as RNA. The related deoxyribose is a component of DNA. Saccharides and their derivatives include many other important biomolecules that play key roles in the immune system, fertilization, preventing pathogenesis, blood clotting, and development

Monosaccharides
Natural saccharides are generally built of simple carbohydrates called monosaccharides with general formula (CH2O)n where n is three or more. A typical monosaccharide has the structure, an aldehyde or ketone with many hydroxyl groups added, usually one on each carbon atom that is not part of the aldehyde or ketone functional group. Examples of monosaccharides are glucose, fructose, and glyceraldehyde all with 6 carbon, hence hexose. However, some biological substances commonly called "monosaccharides" do not conform to this formula (e.g., uronic acids and deoxy-sugars such as fucose), and there are many chemicals that do conform to this formula but are not considered to be monosaccharides (e.g., formaldehyde CH2O and inositol (CH2O)6

 There are classifications of monosaccharides based on how many carbon atoms they have. The classifications by carbon atoms are as follows: Triose- 3, Tetrose- 4, Pentose- 5, Hexose- 6, Heptose7, Octose-8, Nonose- 9, and Decose- 10. Glucose, is a hexose monosaccharide since is has six carbon atoms. They are also classified as aldehyde or ketone depending on what type of carbonyl group is contained in the formula. An aldehyde has a carbon bonded between hydrogen and oxygen, while a ketone has a bond between carbon and oxygen. These are expressed in formulaic mode as aldehyde (-CHO) or ketone (-CO-).

In the Fischer projection, the 'D-' and 'L-' prefixes specifies the configuration at the carbon atom that is second from bottom: 'D-' if the hydroxyl is on the right side, and 'L-' if it is on the left side. The 'D-' and 'L-' prefixes are also used with other monosaccharides, to distinguish two particular stereoisomers that are mirror-images of each other. For this purpose, one considers the chiral carbon that is furthest removed from the C=O group. Its four bonds must connect to -H, -OH, -C(OH)H, and the rest of the molecule.

Uses of monosaccharides
Monosaccharides are absorbed into the body through the walls of the intestine. They are passed into the bloodstream and are stored to be used for energy later on. The more complex the carbohydrate that is, the more sugars it contains the longer it takes to be broken down in the intestines to its simplest components, monosaccharides and disaccharides. Glucose, a form of monosaccharide, is the bodys preferred energy source, and it is also known as blood sugar

Disaccharide
A disaccharide or biose is the carbohydrate formed when two monosaccharides undergo a condensation reaction which involves the elimination of a small molecule, such as water, from the functional groups only. Like monosaccharides, disaccharides form an aqueous solution when dissolved in water. One of the more known examples is sucrose, the other lactose.

 Disaccharides are formed when two monosaccharides are joined together and a molecule of water is removed. For example; milk sugar (lactose) is made from glucose and galactose whereas the sugar from sugar cane and sugar beets (sucrose) is made from glucose and fructose. The two monosaccharides are bonded via a dehydration reaction (also called a condensation reaction or dehydration synthesis) that leads to the loss of a molecule of water and formation of a glycosidic bond.

Common disaccharides
Sucrose (table sugar, cane sugar, beet sugar, or saccharose)glucose fructose Lactulose galactosefructose Lactose (milk sugar)galactose glucose Maltose glucose glucose

Polysaccharides are polymeric carbohydrate structures, formed of repeating units (either mono- or di-saccharides) joined together by glycosidic bonds. These structures are often linear, but may contain various degrees of branching. Polysaccharides are often quite heterogeneous, containing slight modifications of the repeating unit. Depending on the structure, these macromolecules can have distinct properties from their monosaccharide building blocks. They may be amorphous or even insoluble in water.12 When all the monosaccharides in a polysaccharide are the same type the polysaccharide is called a homopolysaccharide or homoglycan, but when more than one type of monosaccharide is present they are called heteropolysaccharides or heteroglycans. 34 Examples include storage polysaccharides such as starch and glycogen, and structural polysaccharides such as cellulose and chitin. Polysaccharides have a general formula of Cx(H2O)y where x is usually a large number between 200 and 2500.

Polysaccharides.
The disaccharides, in turn, can be further dehydrated to join more rings together and form polysaccharides. If we start with a-D-glucose, the polysaccharides that can be formed include starch and glycogen. There are differences between starch and glycogen which are not shown in this segment of the polymer. These polymers can also be hydrolyzed back to form the disaccharides and the monosaccharides. (Also shown in Example 20 in your workbook.)

 Glycogen is a polysaccharide that is found in animals and is composed of a branched chain of glucose residues. It is stored in liver and muscles. It is an energy reserve for animals. It is the chief form of carbohydrate stored in animal body. It is insoluble in water. It turns red when mixed with iodine. It also yields glucose on hydrolysis.

 The structural component of plants are formed primarily from cellulose. Wood is largely cellulose and lignin, while paper and cotton are nearly pure cellulose. Cellulose is a polymer made with repeated glucose units bonded together by beta-linkages. Humans and many other animals lack an enzyme to break the beta-linkages, so they do not digest cellulose. Certain animals such as termites can digest cellulose, because bacteria possessing the enzyme are present in their gut. Cellulose is insoluble in water. It does not change color when mixed with iodine. On hydrolysis, it yields glucose. It is the most abundant carbohydrate in nature.

 Chitin is one of many naturally occurring polymers. It forms a structural component of many animals, such as exoskeletons. Over time it is bio-degradable in the natural environment. Its breakdown may be catalyzed by enzymes called chitinases, secreted by microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi, and produced by some plants. Some of these microorganisms have receptors to simple sugars from the decomposition of chitin. If chitin is detected, they then produce enzymes to digest it by cleaving the glycosidic bonds in order to convert it to simple sugars and ammonia.

 Arabinoxylans are found in both the primary and secondary cell walls of plants and are the copolymers of two pentose sugars: arabinose and xylose. Pectins are a family of complex polysaccharides that contain 1,4-linked -Dgalactosyluronic acid residues. They are present in most primary cell walls and in the non-woody parts of terrestrial plants.

 Amylose is a linear polymer made up of D-glucose units. This polysaccharide is one of the two components of starch, making up approximately 20-30% of the structure. 1 other starch molecules and is therefore an important form of resistant starch, which has been found to be an effective prebiotic

 Amylopectin ( ) is a soluble12 polysaccharide and highly branched polymer of glucose found in plants. It is one of the two components of starch, the other being amylose.

Differences between Amylose, amylopectin and glycogen

Amylose is made up of glucose molecules joined purely by glycosidic bonds between carbon 1 on one glucose molecule and carbon 4 on the other (1,4- glycosidic bonds). This is why the molecules are straight chain

 In amylopectin many of the glucose molecules are joined by 1,4- glycosidic bonds, but there are a few bonds between carbon 1 and carbon 6 of the glucose molecules ( 1, 6- glycosidic bonds). This is what forms the branching chains in amylopectin.

 In glycogen there are more 1,there are more 1,6 glycosidic bonds as well as 1, 4-glycosidic bonds between the glucose molecules.