Biomolecules Part1

Biomolecules
A Seminar on Biomolecules
Contents
• Carbohydrates
• Classification of Carbohydrates
• Glucose
• Structure of Glucose
Carbohydrates
Introduction to Carbohydrates
• Carbohydrates are one of the four major classes of biomolecules,
along with proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. They play critical
roles in energy storage, structural integrity, and cell signalling in
living organisms.
• Primarily produced by plants, form a very large group of
naturally occurring compounds
• Most of them have a general formula of Cx(H2O)y
Carbohydrates are also defined as:
• Optically active polyhydroxy derivatives
• Ketones
• Compounds that produce such units on hydrolysis
Some Carbohydrates, which are sweet in taste, are called sugars
Carbohydrates are also called Saccharides.
Classification of
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are classified based on their behaviour on Hydrolysis
1. Monosaccharides:
The simplest form of saccharides that cannot be hydrolysed further
into simpler carbohydrates.
Ex: Glucose, Fructose, Ribose
2. Oligosaccharides:
• Carbohydrates that yield 2-10 monosaccharide units.
• Further classified as di, tri, tetra,….. Etc. saccharides
• The two units obtained on hydrolysis of disaccharides may be the
same or different, for ex:
Hydrolysis of 1 molecule of Sucrose may give 1 molecule of
Glucose and 1 molecule of Fructose
While Maltose gives 2 molecules of glucose
3 Polysaccharides:
Carbohydrates that yield a huge amount of monosaccharide units

on hydrolysis.
They are also called non-sugars, as they aren’t sweet in taste.
Ex: Cellulose, Starch, Glycogen, Gums, etc.
Carbohydrates may also be classified as
1. Reducing Sugar:
Carbohydrates that reduce Fehling’s solution and Tollens’ reagent
Ex: All monosaccharides are reducing.
2. Non- Reducing Sugar:
Carbohydrates that doesn’t reduce the above solutions

Monosaccharides:
Classification on the basis of the functional group present in it.
If a monosaccharide contains:
• A keto group; it is known as ketose
• An aldehyde group; it is known as Aldose
Classification on the basis of no. of C atoms:

Glucose
Glucose occurs freely in nature as well as in combined form. It is present in sweet fruits and
honey.
Preparation of Glucose:
1) From Sucrose
Boiling Sucrose with dil. HCl or H2SO4 in alcoholic soln. gives Glucose and
Fructose in equal amounts.
2) From Starch:
Commercially, Glucose is obtained by hydrolysis of Starch by boiling it with

dil. H2SO4 at 393K under pressure.
Structure of Glucose
Glucose is an aldohexose and is also known as Dextrose. It is the
monomer of many larger carbohydrates, namely starch, cellulose.
It was assigned the structure based in the following evidences
1. Its molecular formula was found to be
2. On prolonged heating with HI, it forms n=hexane, suggesting that all

the six C atoms are linked in a straight chain.
3. Glucose reacts with Hydroxylamine to form Oxime. It also reacts with

a Hydrogen cyanide to give Cyanohydrin.
These reactions confirms the presence of Carbonyl group in glucose.
4. Glucose gets oxidised to six carbon carboxylic acid on
reaction with a mild oxidizing agent like Bromine water.
This indicates that the carbonyl group is present as an

aldehydic group
5. Acetylation of Glucose with Acetic Anhydride gives Glucose

pentaacetate which confirms the presence of 5 –OH groups.
Since it exists as a stable compound, 5 –OH groups must be

attached to different C atoms.
6. On oxidation with Nitric acid, Glucose as well as Gluconic
acid both yield a dicarboxylic acid, thus confirming the
presence of a primary alcoholic (-OH) group in Glucose.
The exact spatial arrangement of –OH groups was given by
Fischer.
Glucose is correctly represented as I, while Gluconic acid is II

and Saccharic acid is III
Glucose is correctly named as D(+)-Glucose.
Here ‘D’ refers to the configuration and ‘+’ refers to the

optical activity.
What do you mean by D and L configuration?
The letters ‘D’ or ‘L’ before the name of any compound

indicate the relative configuration of the compound w.r.t the
configuration of another compound.
In the case of Carbohydrates, that ‘other’ compound is an

isomer of Glyceraldehyde. It exists in 2 enantiomeric forms
given below.
Here the ‘D’ configuration refers to the (+) – Glyceraldehyde,

while the ‘L’ configuration refers to the (-) – Glyceraldehyde.
In carbohydrates, the lowest asymmetric Carbon atom is
compared.
Thank You
By Aadhal, Adithya, Adwaith,

Sana

Biomolecules Part1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Biomolecules Part1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Biomolecules Part1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Biomolecules

Carbohydrates that yield a huge amount of monosaccharide units

They are also called non-sugars, as they aren’t sweet in taste.

Ex: Cellulose, Starch, Glycogen, Gums, etc.

Carbohydrates may also be classified as

Carbohydrates that reduce Fehling’s solution and Tollens’ reagent

Ex: All monosaccharides are reducing.

2. Non- Reducing Sugar:

Carbohydrates that doesn’t reduce the above solutions

• A keto group; it is known as ketose

• An aldehyde group; it is known as Aldose

Classification on the basis of no. of C atoms:

Commercially, Glucose is obtained by hydrolysis of Starch by boiling it with

1. Its molecular formula was found to be

2. On prolonged heating with HI, it forms n=hexane, suggesting that all

3. Glucose reacts with Hydroxylamine to form Oxime. It also reacts with

This indicates that the carbonyl group is present as an

5. Acetylation of Glucose with Acetic Anhydride gives Glucose

Since it exists as a stable compound, 5 –OH groups must be

Glucose is correctly represented as I, while Gluconic acid is II

Glucose is correctly named as D(+)-Glucose.

Here ‘D’ refers to the configuration and ‘+’ refers to the

The letters ‘D’ or ‘L’ before the name of any compound

In the case of Carbohydrates, that ‘other’ compound is an

Here the ‘D’ configuration refers to the (+) – Glyceraldehyde,

By Aadhal, Adithya, Adwaith,

You might also like