Carbohydrates, Sugar Structures, and Biochemistry

Vocabulary practice cards covering carbohydrate classifications, biochemical terms, structural representations, and historical scientific contributions.

Carbohydrate Classification

The division of carbohydrates into simple carbohydrates (monosaccharides and disaccharides) and complex carbohydrates (oligosaccharides and polysaccharides).

Louis Pasteur

French scientist who founded microbiology, established the Germ Theory of disease, created vaccines for anthrax and rabies, invented pasteurization, and contributed to stereochemistry through studies on tartaric acid.

Germ Theory

The scientific principle demonstrated by Louis Pasteur establishing that microorganisms are the cause of disease.

Pasteurization

A process invented by Louis Pasteur to kill harmful bacteria in food and beverages.

Stereochemistry

A branch of chemistry focusing on the spatial arrangement of atoms in molecules, to which Louis Pasteur made foundational contributions through his research on tartaric acid optical isomers.

D-Glucose

The main carbohydrate and primary energy source in the human body; it is the only enantiomer of glucose that can be metabolized.

Enantiomers

Optical isomers that are non-superimposable mirror images of each other, such as D-glucose and L-glucose.

RDA for Carbohydrates

$130\,g/d$ for adults and children, based on the average minimum amount of glucose required by the brain.

Hexuronic Acid

A substance isolated from adrenal glands in 1928 by Albert Szent-Györgyi, later proved by Charles Glen King in 1932 to be vitamin C.

Monosaccharide

A simple carbohydrate consisting of a single sugar unit; key dietary examples include glucose, fructose, and galactose.

Disaccharide

A simple carbohydrate formed from two monosaccharide units connected by a glycosidic bond.

Oligosaccharide

A complex carbohydrate composed of short-chain polymers of 3 to 10 monosaccharide units, such as raffinose, stachyose, and verbacose.

Polysaccharide

A complex carbohydrate containing more than 10 monosaccharide units, including starch, glycogen, and dietary fiber.

Fructose

A monosaccharide known as fruit sugar; it is the sweetest natural sugar and is present in fruits and high-fructose corn syrup.

Galactose

A monosaccharide that does not naturally occur alone in foods, but binds with glucose to form lactose.

Sucrose

A disaccharide composed of glucose and fructose, commonly extracted from sugar cane or sugar beets.

Lactose

A disaccharide composed of glucose and galactose, found naturally in milk and dairy products.

Maltose

A disaccharide composed of two glucose units, produced during the partial hydrolysis of starch.

Haworth Projection

A two-dimensional graphical representation introduced by Norman Haworth to illustrate the three-dimensional cyclic structures of sugars.

Anomeric Carbon

The specific carbon atom in a cyclic sugar bound to two oxygen atoms by single bonds, serving as the site of ring opening to yield a carbonyl group.

Amylose

A linear, unbranched starch component composed of glucose units connected by ̑̑\alpha-1,4 glycosidic bonds, making up roughly 20% of plant starch.

Amylopectin

A highly branched starch polymer composed of glucose chains linked by ̑̑\alpha-1,4 glycosidic bonds with ̑̑\alpha-1,6 glycosidic bonds at branch points, making up roughly 80% of plant starch.

Glycogen

The principal short-term glucose storage polysaccharide in animal liver and muscle tissue, featuring a more densely branched structure than amylopectin with ̑̑\alpha-1,4 and ̑̑\alpha-1,6 glycosidic bonds.

Cellulose

A structural polysaccharide comprised of glucose monomers joined by ̑̑\beta-1,4 glycosidic linkages, serving as an indigestible component of plant cell walls (dietary fiber) in humans.

Sugar Alcohols

Polyols derived from monosaccharides, such as sorbitol (from glucose), as well as mannitol and xylitol (from fructose).

Claude Bernard

French physiologist who discovered glycogen in mammalian liver tissue in 1856 and demonstrated its role in glucose storage and release.

Emil Fischer

German biochemist awarded the 1902 Nobel Prize for elucidating the chemical structures of various sugars.

Norman Haworth

British chemist awarded the 1937 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on carbohydrates and vitamin C, as well as developing the Haworth structural projection.