Carbohydrates

Sugars make rings in aqueous solutions

C

CC

C

CC

1'

2'3'

4'

5'

6'

O

When sugars bond together, it

happens at the 1 and 4 carbons.

H

HH

H

H

OHOH OH

OH

OHHH

Simple & complex sugars• Monosaccharides

– simple 1 monomer sugars– Ex. glucose, fructose

• Disaccharides– 2 monomers– Ex. maltose, sucrose

• Polysaccharides – large polymers– Starch, cellulose, chitin, glycogen

OH

OH

H

H

HO

CH2OH

H

H

H

OH

O

Glucose

Polysaccharides • Polymers of sugars

• Function:– energy storage

• starch (plants)• glycogen (animals)

– in liver & muscles

– structure• cellulose (plants)• chitin (arthropods & fungi)

glucose glucose glucose glucose glucose glucose glucoseglucose

Building bigger sugars• Dehydration synthesis

|fructose

|glucose

monosaccharides

|sucrose

(table sugar)

disaccharide

H2O

Digesting polysaccharides

• Say you ate a potato (full of starch!).• What kind of reaction will your body carry out to

digest the starch (we’ll say, 200 glucose bonded together) into monomers?

• What are the reactants? What are the products?• Challenge: balance the equation!

C1200H2002O1001+ 199H2O--> 200C6H12O6

Metabolism• Sum of all reactions in

your body

When you eat disachharides or polysaccharides, what happens?

When you have too much glucose in your blood, what happens?