ABSTRACT
When you have completed this chapter, you should understand the following points:
• Carbohydrates are polyhydroxy aldehydes and ketones that are commonly known as sugars. A monosaccharide is a carbohydrate composed of one sugar unit and a disaccharide is a carbohydrate composed of two monosaccharide units. An oligosaccharide is composed of 2-10 monosaccharide units; a polysaccharide is composed of 10 or more monosaccharide units. An aldose is a carbohydrate that contains an aldehyde unit and a ketose is a carbohydrate that contains a ketone unit. Monosaccharides are categorized by the total number of carbons in the structure: triose, tetrose, pentose, hexose, etc. The d and l configurations of a monosaccharide are based on the Fischer projection of d-glyceraldehyde. A Fischer projection is an older representation of sugars.
