Carbohydrates

Monosaccharide, oligosaccharide and polysaccharide are the three types of carbohydrates. Aldose glyceraldehydes and dihydroxy acetone are monosaccharides which are simple sugars and cannot be hydrolyzed into smaller units. These sugars contain three carbon atoms. Oligosaccharides carry two to six molecules of simple sugars. Disaccharides contain two monosaccharide units and are most abundant in this class. Polysaccharides consist of hundreds of monosaccharide units. They form either in linear structure or in branched structure. Polysaccharides made up from a single monosaccharide are termed as homopolysaccharide and the polysaccharide made up from more than one monosaccharide is termed as heteropolysaccharide.