Carbohydrate

A saccharide compound is an organic substance composed of three elements of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. From the chemical structure, the saccharides are polyhydroxy aldehydes and ketones and their multimers. Sugar is widely distributed in the plant kingdom and is the main constituent of plants. It plays an important role in the physiological and biochemical processes of plants. According to its structure, it can be divided into monosaccharides (including glucose, fructose, galactose, etc.), disaccharides (including sucrose, maltose, lactose, etc.) and polysaccharides (including starch, glycogen, muscle glycogen, etc.). Monosaccharides are the simplest carbohydrates, polyhydroxy aldehydes or polyhydroxyketones that can no longer be hydrolyzed. They are customarily called aldoses and ketoses. For example, glucose is hexose sugar, fructose is ketohexose, and ribose is valerose. The monosaccharide has no more than 10 carbon atoms. Naturally, there are monosaccharides of 5 to 6 carbon atoms. The disaccharide is composed of two molecules of monosaccharides combined with one molecule of water. The polysaccharide consists of hundreds or even thousands of glucose molecules. The polysaccharide is thoroughly hydrolyzed to form thousands of monosaccharide molecules such as starch and cellulose. Carbohydrates are closely related to human life, and sugar is the main source of energy for the human body. The relationship between saccharide compounds and drugs is also very close. For example, patients need glucose injection and dextran as plasma preparations. The starch used in the production of tablets is used as an excipient. Some saccharides contained in traditional Chinese medicines have physiological activities, such as sputum aggregation. Sugar has a strong inhibitory effect on mouse sarcoma S100, and Polyporus umbellatus polysaccharide and lentinan also have a strong inhibitory effect on tumors. Carbohydrates are the main products of photosynthesis of green plants, the main source of energy needed for animal and plant life-sustaining activities, and the main food that is indispensable for humans and animals. Carbohydrates are also important industrial raw materials used in the construction, paper, pharmaceutical and food sectors. They are processed directly and indirectly to meet the needs of human beings, food, clothing, housing and transportation. In recent years, the research of saccharide compounds has two directions: 1 chemists are committed to the artificial synthesis of saccharide compounds, which is mainly for the long-term development of social development, so that human food will gradually get rid of dependence on agriculture. The task of this synthesis work is to find ways to perform artificial photosynthesis to change the current state of natural photosynthesis of plants alone, but to be economically viable. 2 Study the relationship between carbohydrates and life, because sugar is inseparable from proteins and nucleic acids in life. The mystery of sugar compounds in living organisms will be revealed.