Carbohydrates - week 3 Flashcards
What are the four most abundant elements in the universe?
H, He, O, C
What are the most abundant elements in the human body?
Oxygen and carbon
What are carbohydrates?
Molecules possessing the empirical chemical formula of (CH2O)n - hydrated carbon
What chemical functional groups are present in aldose sugars (-CHO)
Aldehyde and alcohol
What chemical functional groups are present in ketones sugars ? (-C=O)
Ketones and alcohol
what is an example of an important human carbohydrate?
Glucose
What is the bulk carb ingested?
Starch - a polymer of glucose eg. In bread, potatoes pasta, rice
What other carbs are present in the body ?
- Ribose, deoxyribose in RNA and DNA
- Lactose in milk
- Glycogen stored in liver and muscles
What is the sole fuel molecule in the brain and red blood cells?
Glucose
What diseases are associated with abnormal carb metabolism?
- diabetes
- galactosaemia
- fructose intolerance
- lactose intolerance
How to classify a carb?
- monosaccharides
- disaccharides
- oligosaccharides
- polysaccharides
What are monosaccharides?
Basic unit of carbs that cannot be broken down into simpler sugars
name 4 monosaccharides
Glucose
Fructose
Galactose
Ribose
What are disaccharides?
Composed of two monosaccharide sugar units, which may be the same or two different monosaccharides
Name three examples of disaccharides
Maltose
Sucrose
Lactose
What is maltose made up of?
Glucose + glucose
What is sucrose made up of?
Glucose + fructose
What is lactose made up of?
Glucose + galactose
What are oligosaccharides?
Defined as containing between 3 and 10 monosaccharide units, which may be the same or a mixture of different monosaccharides
What are polysaccharides?
- high molecular wight carbohydrate polymers defined as containing 11 or more monosaccharide units
How many monosaccharide units do important biological polysaccharides contain?
Many hundreds
How can a polysaccharide be structured?
May be linear or branched