Carbohydrate Chemistry

There are three different groups of carbohydrates: monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides.
"Saccharide" means sugar.

Group 1: Monosaccharides (single molecule sugars)

A single molecule sugar is called a monosaccharide. The prefix "mono-" means one. However, the one molecule can
have different shapes due to a different arrangement of atoms. Examples of three monosaccharides are glucose,
fructose and galactose.
Examine the structure formulas of these three sugars and answer questions 1 - 7.

1. What three chemical elements are present in the three monosaccharides shown? ______________
2. How many atoms of carbon are present in a molecule of:
glucose _______
fructose_______
galactose _____
3. Add subscripts to the following to indicate the proper simple formula. Fill in the blanks by counting the total
number of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms in each molecule.
glucose
C___H___ O___
fructose
C___H___ O___
galactose
C___H___ O___
4. Are there two times as many hydrogen atoms than oxygen atoms in a molecule of:
glucose
_____
fructose
_____
galactose
_____
5. Are there two times as many hydrogen atoms than oxygen atoms in a molecule of water? _____
6. Compare the structural formula of glucose to fructose.
a. Are they exactly the same shape? ______
b. Are they both monosaccharides? ______
7. Glucose, fructose and galactose have the same chemical formula but different structures. This makes them
___________.

Group 2 Disaccharides (double molecule sugars)

Two monosaccharide sugar molecules can join chemically to form a larger carbohydrate molecule called a double
sugar or disaccharide. The prefix "di-" means two.
Condensation is a reaction in which two molecules become covalently bonded to each other through the loss of a
small molecule - usually water.
Hydrolysis is a chemical process that splits molecules by the addition of water.
8. Cut out one model of glucose and one model of fructose along the solid lines. Can you find a way to make these
paper models fit together? _____.
9. In order to join the molecules, cut along the dotted lines and remove one OH- from the end of one molecule and
one H+ from the end of another.
10. Does removing the H+ and OH- ends now allow the molecules to fit together easily? _____
11. The H+ and OH- ends that were removed can also fit together with each other to form a molecule. This new
molecule has a simple formula of ______________ and is called ______________.
12. What is this process called?__________________
13. Write a simple formula for sucrose by adding together the molecular formulas for glucose and fructose and
then subtracting water, H2O (Use structural formulas for this step, not the models.) ____________________
Paste the sucrose model and water model in your notebook. Label them.
Different disaccharide molecules can be made by joining other monosaccharides in different combinations. By
chemically joining a glucose molecule with another glucose molecule, a double sugar called maltose is formed.
Cut out and attempt to join two new glucose model molecules.
14. What must be removed from the glucose model molecules so they easily fit together? ______
15. Write a simple formula for maltose ______________
16. How does the simple formula for sucrose compare to maltose? _________
17. Why is the formula for sucrose the same as maltose?
_________________________________________________________________________
18. How many monosaccharide molecules are needed to form one sucrose molecule?_________
19. How many monosaccharide molecules are needed to from one maltose molecule?_________
Paste your maltose and water models into your lab book. Label them.

Group 3 Polysaccharides (many molecule sugars)

Just as double sugars are formed from two single sugar molecules, polysaccharides are formed when many simple
sugars are joined chemically. The prefix "poly-" means many. Starch, glycogen and cellulose are the three most
common polysaccharides in biology. They consist of long chains of glucose molecules joined.
Construct a starch molecule by joining three glucose molecules. This model will represent only a small part of a
starch molecule because starch consists of hundreds of glucose molecules. Cut, paste and label.
20. What must be removed from the glucose model molecules in order to have them easily fit together.?
_________
The simple formula for a polysaccharide is written as (C6H10O5)n. The n equals the number of times C6H10O5 is
repeated.

Putting it together:
21. Glucose is the primary source of energy for cells. Foods rarely contain monosaccharides. What process is used
in the digestion of disaccharides and polysaccharides to make glucose available to the cells?
_____________________
22. Cellulose, also called plant fiber, is an extremely long polysaccharide and very difficult to digest. Why?
________________________________________________________________

Carbohydrate cutouts
Simulate condensation reactions by cutting these out and assembling them to make a disaccharide or
polysaccharide according to the directions on the worksheet. Be sure to assemble water molecules as by-products
of each reaction. Add this assignment to your table of contents.