Organic Chemistry

Carbohydrate chemistry is a branch of organic chemistry that studies carbon compounds. Carbon can be found in food and non-food substance. As carbon plays a huge role in living things, organic chemistry is very important to medicine and life science.

All Carbohydrates Contain Sugar

Is it surprising to you that all carbohydrates are made of sugar? Whether they are bread, vegetables or fruits, they contain sugar! For example, if you eat a plate of pasta, you are in fact eating sugar but you just don’t get the benefit of the sweet taste. The calories in the carbohydrates provide energy for living things to survive.

Carbohydrates  = Carbon + Hydrogen + Oxygen

Simple Sugar & Complex Sugar

There are two types of sugar – simple and complex. Simple sugars are the saccharides. Complex sugars consists of disaccharides, ogliosaccharides and polysaccharides.

Monosaccharides

Simplest form of carbohydrate with only 1 chemical ring.

Click here for more information on simple sugars >>

Disaccharides

Are double sugars, have two monosaccharides joined together.

Polysaccharides

Are complex sugars with long chains of sugar molecules.

Oligosaccharides

Oligosaccharides consist of 3 to 10 monosaccharide units whereas polysaccharides are a lot larger.

It isn’t easy to remember all the names of the sugars. However, memorizing 2 names a day and in 5 days you would have learnt 10 names!