What are Monosaccharides? There structure, and examples.

Monosaccharides: -

Monosaccharides, also knows as simple sugars are the monobasic units of carbohydrates. They cannot be further hydrolysed to simpler chemical compounds. Monosaccharides have their empirical formula of (C₆H₁₂O₆). They are colourless water-soluble, crystalline, sweet tested compounds.

Some of the examples of monosaccharides are the Glucose, Fructose & Galactose. Each carbon atom that supports a hydroxyl group is chiral, giving rise to a number of isomeric forms, all with the same chemical formula. For instance, galactose and glucose are both aldohexoses, but have different physical structures and chemical properties.

Structure of monosaccharides: -

Monosaccharides having a chemical formula of C_mH_2nO_m. Monosaccharides can be determined by the “Carbon atom count” of a compound. Depending on the number of carbon atoms the monosaccharide compound can be named as triose (3), tetrose (4), pentose (5), hexose (6), heptose (7) and so on. But a certain exception lies where the empirical formula is not same for some of the monosaccharide compound such as the deoxyribose sugar moiety. Monosaccharides with more than eight carbon atoms are rare due to their instability in structural formation. Monosaccharides in aqueous solution exist as ring structures if they have more than four carbon atoms.

Two monosaccharide compounds have same structural configuration and arrangements can still be distinguished by their stereoisomers, which differ by the three-dimensional arrangements of their chemical bonds between compounds.

For the determination Fischer projection method is in best use to determine their differences by drawing a skeletal structure of an acyclic monosaccharide so that the handedness of each chiral carbon is well specified. Each stereoisomer of a simple open-chain monosaccharide can be identified by the positions (right or left) in the Fischer diagram of the chiral hydroxyls (the hydroxyls attached to the chiral carbons).