Monosaccharide

A monosaccharide is a single sugar unit that cannot be hydrolyzed into a smaller carbohydrate. Its carbonyl group and hydroxyl groups determine its structure and chemical behavior.

Aldose: A monosaccharide whose carbonyl group is an aldehyde, usually at the end of its open-chain form. This class includes glucose and other sugars with a terminal carbonyl in their open-chain structures.
Haworth projection: A diagram convention for representing the ring form of a cyclic sugar. It displays the ring structures formed when many monosaccharides cyclize in solution.
Glucose: A six-carbon aldose that is a major fuel for cells and a building block of many carbohydrates. It is a widely used cellular energy source and a central product of carbohydrate digestion.
Disaccharide: A carbohydrate composed of two monosaccharide units joined by a glycosidic bond. Unlike a monosaccharide, it can be hydrolyzed into two sugar units.
Ketose: A monosaccharide whose open-chain form contains a ketone carbonyl, typically on an internal carbon. Fructose illustrates how an internal carbonyl distinguishes one major monosaccharide class.
Mutarotation: The change in optical rotation as a sugar solution reaches equilibrium between anomers. Interconversion through the open-chain form lets cyclic monosaccharides shift between anomers.
Fructose: A six-carbon ketose found in fruits, honey, and many plant-derived foods. Its ketose structure and sweetness distinguish it from glucose despite their shared formula.
Oligosaccharide: A carbohydrate containing a short chain of monosaccharide units joined by glycosidic bonds. It is a small sugar chain rather than a single unit.
Pentose: A monosaccharide containing five carbon atoms. Ribose and deoxyribose are pentoses that form the sugar components of nucleic acids.
Glycosidic bond: A covalent bond linking a sugar's anomeric carbon to another group, often another sugar. A monosaccharide's anomeric carbon forms the bonds that build larger carbohydrates.

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