ABSTRACT
Glucose contains six carbon atoms, but there are other monosaccharides such as fructose which are simpler because they only contain five carbon atoms. The famous German chemist Emil Fischer determined the structure of glucose and two other sugars over a period of about 10 years while working at the Universities of Erlangen, Wurtzburg and Berlin, in the late 1800s. The oxidation of glucose releases a lot of energy, and produces carbon dioxide and water as waste products. These are removed from the body either by exhalation or urination, or for plants by evaporation from the pores in their leaves. Glucose itself would simply dissolve in the animal or plant fluids and rapidly be excreted from the organism. Glucose molecules in both the forms of starch are bound together by relatively weak bonds. These can be broken by enzymes called amylases, which are found in both plants and animals.
