Definition: Carbohydrates are hydrates of carbon, which on hydrolysis produce polyhydroxy aldehydes or polyhydroxy ketones . OR Carbohydrates are the derivatives of the polyhydroxy aldehydes or ketones or the products derived from them. Physical Properties of Carbohydrates: Asymmetric carbon atom A carbon atom to which four different atoms or groups of atoms are attached is said to be an asymmetric carbon atom. Many biochemicals contain two or more asymmetric carbon atoms. The presence of asymmetric carbon atom allows formation of isomers. The compounds which have the same structural formula, but differ only in spatial configuration are called stereo-isomers or geometric isomers. More the number of asymmetric carbon atoms, more are the number of isomers; e.g. glucose with four asymmetric carbon atoms has 2"= 2 = 16 isomers ; n indicates the number of asymmetric carbon atoms. If the molecule contains one double bond with two different atoms or groups of atoms lin...
A blog about "pharmacy lecture notes".