CLASSIFICATION OF CARBOHYDRATES

MONOSACCHARIDES

Monosaccharides is a simple sugar. Monosaccharides consist of at least three carbon atoms, one of which is attached to an oxygen atom to form an aldehyde group (CHO) or a ketone, and the others of which are each attached to a hydroxyl group (OH). Monosaccharides can occur as chains or rings. Fructose, glucose, and galactose are the examples of simple sugar of monosaccharides.

DISACCHARIDES

Disaccharides 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 group only. Like monosaccharides ,disaccharides form an aqueous solution when dissolved in water. Three common examples are sucrose, lactose, and maltose .'Disaccharide' is one of the four chemical groupings of carbohydrates (monosaccharide, disaccharide, and polysaccharide).

POLYSACCHARIDES

Polysaccharides are long carbohydrate molecules of monosaccharide units joined together by glycosidic bonds They range in structure from linear to highly branched. 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.Examples include storage polysaccharides such as starch and glycogen, and structural polysaccharides such as cellulose and chitin.