Organic Compounds: Carbohydrates or Saccharides

15 days ago

In this video I go over organic compounds and focus on carbohydrates which are also referred to as saccharides. Depending on the definition, an organic compound is any chemical compound that contains a carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon covalent bond, or simply contains carbon. A carbohydrate or saccharide (or carbs in daily usage) is an organic compound consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a H-O ratio of 2:1 such as in water. Besides water, nearly all molecules in a living organism contains carbon. I also go over a table of 3 major carbohydrates which are classified by their degree of polymerization, or number of monomeric units in a macromolecule. These 3 major carbs are: Sugars (1-2 degrees), Oligosaccharides (3-9), and Polysaccharides (10+).

Note that most monosaccharides and disaccharides (sugars) end with "-ose", which stems from the Ancient Greek word "glucose" which means "wine, must". Must refers to "young wine" or freshly crushed fruit juice that still contains the skins, seeds, and stems of the fruit.

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