How do the prefixes of the saccharide words relate to the structure of the sugar?

Answer 1

Scientists also use the word saccharide to describe sugars. If there is only one sugar molecule, it is called a monosaccharide. If there are two, it is a disaccharide. If there are three, it is a trisaccharide. You get the idea.

Answer 2

Saccharides, apart from their conventional names such as glucose, sucrose, fructose, maltose, etc., are also classified according to whether it is an aldehyde or a ketone and how many carbon atoms it carries, followed by '-ose'. In this system, glucose can be called an aldohexose (contains aldehyde functional group and has 6 carbons), ribose can be called an aldopentose (contains aldehyde functional group and has 5 carbons), and fructose can be called a ketohexose (contains ketone functional group and has 6 carbons). In addition, to distinguish between chain and ring conformations of monosaccharides, the name for the ring conformation is usually added a '-pyran-' or '-furan-' to indicate the structure (pyran and furan) that the ring resembles. Therefore, glucose that has assumed the ring conformation is called glucopyranose and fructose that has assumed the ring conformation is called fructofuranose. Names for disaccharides or polysaccharides are more complicated since the stereotypical conformation and identities of the subunits have to be identified as while as the type of bond between the subunits. For example, the systematic name of lactose (galactose+glucose) is (beta)-D-galactopyranosyl-(1<->4)(beta)-D-glucopyranose.

Answer 3

The prefixes of saccharide words indicate the number of carbon atoms in the sugar molecule. For example, "mono-" means one, "di-" means two, "tri-" means three, and so on. This corresponds to the number of carbon atoms in the sugar molecule, with glucose having 6 carbons (hexose), fructose having 5 carbons (pentose), and so on.