Polysaccharides are polymeric A polymer is a large molecule composed of repeating structural units typically connected by covalent chemical bonds. While polymer in popular usage suggests plastic, the term actually refers to a large class of natural and synthetic materials with a variety of properties carbohydrate A carbohydrate is an organic compound with general formula Cmn, that is, consisting only of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, the last two in the 2:1 atom ratio. Carbohydrates can be viewed as hydrates of carbon, hence their name structures, formed of repeating units (either mono- or di-saccharides) joined together by glycosidic bonds In chemistry, a glycosidic bond is a type of functional group that joins a carbohydrate molecule to another group, which may or may not be another carbohydrate. These structures are often linear, but may contain various degrees of branching. Polysaccharides are often quite heterogeneous, containing slight modifications of the repeating unit. Depending on the structure, these macromolecules A macromolecule is a very large molecule most often created by some form of polymerization. In the context of biochemistry, the term may be applied to the four conventional biopolymers , as well as non-polymeric molecules with large molecular mass such as macrocycles. The constituent molecules from which macromolecules are assembled are called can have distinct properties from their monosaccharide building blocks. They may be amorphous An "amorphous solid" is a solid in which there is no long-range order of the positions of the atoms. . Most classes of solid materials can be found or prepared in an amorphous form. For instance, common window glass is an amorphous solid, many polymers (such as polystyrene) are amorphous, and even foods such as cotton candy are amorphous or even insoluble Solubility is the property of a solid, liquid, or gaseous chemical substance called solute to dissolve in a liquid solvent to form a homogeneous solution. The solubility of a substance strongly depends on the used solvent as well as on temperature and pressure. The extent of the solubility of a substance in a specific solvent is measured as the in water. [1][2]
When all the monosaccharides in a polysaccharide are the same type the polysaccharide is called a homopolysaccharide, but when more than one type of monosaccharide is present they are called heteropolysaccharides.
Examples include storage polysaccharides such as starch Starch or amylum is a polysaccharide carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds. Starch is produced by all green plants as an energy store. It is the most important carbohydrate in the human diet and is contained in such staple foods as rice, wheat, maize , potatoes and cassava and glycogen Glycogen is the molecule that functions as the secondary long-term energy storage in animal cells. It is made primarily by the liver and the muscles, but can also be made by glycogenesis within the brain and stomach. Glycogen is the analogue of starch, a less branched glucose polymer in plants, and is commonly referred to as animal starch, having, and structural polysaccharides such as cellulose Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula n, a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to over ten thousand β(1→4) linked D-glucose units and chitin Chitin n (pronounced /ˈkaɪtɨn/) is a long-chain polymer of a N-acetylglucosamine, a derivative of glucose, and is found in many places throughout the natural world. It is the main component of the cell walls of fungi, the exoskeletons of arthropods such as crustaceans (e.g. crabs, lobsters and shrimps) and insects, the radulas of mollusks and.
Polysaccharides have a general formula of Cx(H2O)y where x is usually a large number between 200 and 2500. Considering that the repeating units in the polymer backbone are often six-carbon monosaccharides, the general formula can also be represented as (C6H10O5)n where 40≤n≤3000
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