Carbohydrate

Carbohydrates (a basic class of substance in biochemistry) are a primary means in organisms of storing or consuming energy. In autotroph?s, such as plants, food is converted in to starch for compressed storage. In heterotroph?s such as animals they have a use as metabolic fuel.

Categories

Typically carbohydrates are split in to the sweet sugars: monosaccharides, disaccharides and the unsweet starchy polysaccharides. Monosaccharides are simple, crystalline sugars. Disaccharides are made by joining two monosaccharides together (hence di-saccharides). Polysaccharides are very large molecules such as starch or glycogen? which are formed by many monosaccharides joining together (poly-saccharides).

Structure

Carbohydrates consist almost exclusively of just three elements: carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. The ratio of these elements is typically 1C:2H:1O. Carbohydrates have the general formula:

  Cx(H2O)y

The structural components of plants are primarily composed of carbohydrates.

Links:

• [Carbohydrate Nomenclature ]