describe the various ways of classifying carbohydrates give examples for each class
Answers
Explanation:
Carbohydrates, also called Carbs, are defined as aldehydic or ketonic compounds with a some number of oxydrilic groups (so polyhydroxy aldehydes or ketones as well).
On the basis of the number of forming units, three major classes of carbohydrates can be defined: monosaccharides, oligosaccharides and polysaccharides.
Monosaccharides or simply sugars are formed by only one polyhydroxy aldehydeidic or ketonic unit.
The most abundant monosaccharide is D-glucose, also called dextrose.
Oligosaccharides are formed by short chains of monosaccharidic units (from 2 to 20) linked one to the next by chemical bounds, called glycosidic bounds.
The most abundant oligosaccharides are disaccharides, formed by two monosaccharides, and especially in the human diet the most important are sucrose (common table sugar), lactose and maltose.
Polysaccharides are polymers consisting of 20 to 107 monosaccharidic units;
Whereas in the plant kingdom several types of polysaccharides are present, in vertebrates there are only a small number.
On the basis of their degree of polymerization, they can be classified as:
simple: mono- and disaccharides (also known as “sugars”) and tri- and tetrasaccharides (oligosaccharides);
complex: the polysaccharides.
A further classification lays the foundations on the possibility of being used directly for energy purpose, so: available, as glucose, fructose, galactose between monosaccharides, sucrose, lactose, maltose and maltodextrin between oligosaccharides, and starch and glycogen between polysaccharides;
not available, as xylose (monosaccharide), lactulose (see lactose) and raffinose (respectively di- and trisaccharide), fiber (cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, pectins etc.)