Saturday, July 14, 2018

introduction to carbohydrates


A carbohydrate is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1.




Carbohydrates perform numerous roles in living organism.
1-  source of energy .
Glucose is the main source of energy in the body and without it, it will not be possible for the body to carry out any vital process

2-precurosr for other compounds
Many compounds in the human body have their origin, from which sugar is made


3-storage
The animals' bodies store sugar in a compond called glycogen

4-DNA synthesis
DNA is the center of vital information storage that contains the characteristics of the living organism and is made up of ribose sugar as well as other compounds
     Classifiaction of saccharides

There are a number of ways to classify sugars, but it is possible to classify the number of sugar units in the composition of the compound.

1-monosaccharides are those sugars that cannot be hydrolyzed
into simpler carbohydrates.


2-Disaccharides are condensation products of two monosaccharide, lactose, maltose, isomaltose, sucrose,.


3-Oligosaccharides are condensation products of three to
ten monosaccharides. Most are not digested by human
enzymes.
4-Polysaccharides are condensation products of more than
ten monosaccharide units; examples are the starches and
dextrins,


 The most important sugars
The most important monosaccraide include  are glucose and ribose while important disaccraide are lactose and maltose
Glycogens is the most important polysaccaride in the bodies of animals and starch as well as the most important sugar in the body of plants and both Glacocene and starch are compounds that store glucose.
Glucose is the most important sugar at all because all other compounds are converted to it to be used in other vital processes

Sources of Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are found in a wide variety of foods. The important sources are cereals (wheat, maize, rice), potatoes, sugarcane, fruits, table sugar (sucrose), bread, milk, etc
.



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