Introduction Cellulose is an organic compound belonging to the category of polysaccharides. It is a polymer made up of glucose subunits. It is found in bacterial and plant cells and is abundantly present in their cell walls. Cellulose plays an important role in the structure and strength of plants. It also finds great importance in …
Introduction Fatty acids are the organic compounds having an alkyl chain attached to the carboxylic acid functional group. They are present in the human body in free form as well as in esterified form as triglycerides. They are used as an energy source by cells or as building blocks of complex lipids like phospholipids. Fatty …
Introduction Glucose is the most important monosaccharide present in our body. It belongs to the hexose category of monosaccharides. Glucose provides energy to all the cells in our body except the cardiac myocytes. Excess glucose is stored in the body in the form of storage molecules. Glucose is present in human blood within a specific …
Introduction All the human cells require a constant supply of glucose for proper functioning. Glucose is used as an energy source in most of the cells. It is essential for the normal functioning of brain cells, red blood cells, and skeletal muscles. Blood glucose is mainly obtained from three sources; diet, gluconeogenesis, and glycogen degradation. …
Introduction Lipids is a broad category of organic compounds that vary greatly in their structure and properties. Phospholipids are one of these heterogeneous compounds included in this category of biological molecules. Phospholipids are characterized by having a phosphate group in their structure making them polar compounds. They are the most prominent lipids present in all …
Introduction Proteins are the organic molecules made up of amino acids. These amino acids are linked together via peptide bonds in the form of long chains. The amino acids present in these long chains determine the final structure, properties, and functions of proteins. Amino acids in proteins don’t lie in linear chains. Rather, the chains …
Introduction Cells are the basic units of life that are capable of carrying out all the processes of life. They are the building blocks of all organisms. Some living organisms are made up of only one cell and are called unicellular, while the rest are made up of many cells called multicellular organisms. In both …
Introduction Disaccharides are the carbohydrates that are made up of two monosaccharide subunits. They act as a source of monosaccharides. Sometimes, they also used as an alternative to monosaccharides as they share various common properties. In this section of the notes, we will discuss the structure, classification, and properties of disaccharides. We will also study …
Polymers are the giant molecules formed by joining together of hundreds or thousands of smaller molecules. They belong to the category of macromolecules. The word polymer is derived from two Greek words; ‘poly’ meaning ‘many’, and ‘mer’ meaning ‘part’. Thus, a polymer is a large molecule made up of several identical repeating units called monomer. …
Introduction Polysaccharides are the large biological molecules that belong to the category of carbohydrates. They are the biological polymers made up of hundreds or thousands of monosaccharide subunits attached via glycosidic bonds. According to the definition, polysaccharides are the carbohydrates that contain more than ten monosaccharide subunits. Upon degradation, they yield individual monosaccharides. Commonly occurring …
