Congratulations for reaching the last module!

You now have knowledge that the distinction between

organic and inorganic substances lies in their composition and properties and when polymers are
spoken of size and structures counts. We will now take a look at biomolecules- the organic compounds
of life

Biomolecules are carbon containing compounds which are of biological importance because they make
up and carry out by their chemical reactions the needs of the living organism where they are found.

1. Carbohydrate

- Defined as aldehyde or ketones derivatives of polyhydric alcohols, or simply as polyhydroxy

ketones.
- Their reactions are typical of the functional group –OH and C=O present in their molecules
- Named in general way using the ending –ose. The prefixes tri-meaning three, tetra(4),
pent(5), hex(6) are used to denote the number of C atoms forming the basic unit in the
carbohydrate. Hence the terms triose tetrose pentose hexose, etc and since carbohydrates
are aldehydic or ketonic, the appropriate prefix aldo or keto is also used.
- Carbohydrates are referred to as saccharides from the Greek word that means sweet-
though not all really have a sweet taste
o Sucrose is taken as the standard of sweetness with which the other sugars are
compared.
 Fructose (fruit sugar) - 173.3%
 Glucose ( grape sugar) 74.3%
 Invert sugar- 127.13%
 Maltose ( Malt sugar)- 32.5%
 Sucrose – 100%
 Lactose ( milk sugar) -16%

o Monosaccharide
 It comprise the simplest group of carbohydrates.
 They cannot be hydrolyzed or split into other carbohydrates of less carbon
content.
 Subclassified as trios, tetrose, pentose, hexoses or heptoses according to
the number of carbon atoms that exists as the monomer unit
 They are usually crystalline, have a sweet taste
 The common pentoses are arabinose, xylose and ribose
o Arabinose comes from gum Arabic and the gum of cherry
tree
o Xylose is the component of wood, straw, corn cobs and
bran.
o Pentoses that are important in human metabolism are
ribose and deocyribose
 The important hexoses (C6H12O6) are
o Glucose
 It occurs free in many fruit and plant juices.
 It is known also as grape sugar. Another name given
to It is dextrose and is given intravenously when a
person is unable to take food by mouth.
 It is called blood sugar because it is a normal
constituent of the blood and tissue fluids of the
human body.
 Glucose is found in three forms in water solution.
An open-chain form and two cyclic or ring forms

 T
he placement of the H and OH group on carbon 1
differentiates the two ring form of glucose. If the
OH group is below the plane of the ring, it is the
alpha or cis form; if it is above the ring, it is the beta
or trans form

 In reality , because of the tetrahedral bonding at

each carbon atom the carbohydrate rings are not
flat but are bent up at one end and don at the other
end, known as the chair conformation
  Commercial glucose is prepare by acid hydrolysis of
cornstarch. Corn syrup is largely glucose and is use
in large quantities in making candy to keep it
creamy.

 Glucose is also used in the modification of cow’s

milk

o Fructose

o In nature fructose or levulose is found free in certain fruit

juices and honey. It has no particular commercial use.

o It is a ketohexose and is produced by hydrolysis of

polysaccharide inulin.

o Molecules of fructose exist in five member ring structures

such as the one shown in the following:

 Galacatose

o It does not occur in free state in the body

o It is a important as a constituent of milk sugar in the

mammary glands and in the cerebrosides of the brain and
nerve tissues

o It is obtained from the hydrolysis of lactose and agar.

  Agar-agar is a polysaccharides obtained from
seaweeds.

o It is used as thickener in sauces and ice creams and in

nutrient broth used in microbiology

 Oligosaccharides

o Carbohydrates that contain 2-10 monosaccharides.

o The mose common among them are the disaccharides.

o Most of the di and tri saccharides are soluble in water and crystalline quite readily

 The impotant Disaccharides (C12H22O6) are

1. Sucrose

 Also called as table sugar

 It is commercially oreoared from sugar cane and sugar beets.

Bananas , cantaloupes, oranges and peaches are high in sucrose.

 Sucrose is composed of a molecule of glucose joined to a molecule

of fructose through their aldehyde and ketone groups, forming an
oxygen bridge or glycosidic linkage.

 When it is hydrolyzed, the mixture of glucose and fructose is

referred to as invert sugar.
2. Lactose

 Also called as milk sugar

 The body from the glucose in the blood synthesizes it.

 When milk sours the lactose is changed by bacterial enzymes to

lactic acid which in turn precipitates the casein or curdles the milk
 3. Maltose

 Also known as malt sugar

 It is produced by the incomplete hydrolysis of starch, glycogen or

dextrins.

 When produced from grains germinated under controlled conditions,

it is called malt and is used in manufacture of beer.

 Polysaccaharides

o In the classification that includes the oligosaccharides, the poly in the name
polysaccharide refers to more than ten.

o In another classification, carbohydrates that produce three or more monosaccharides

upon hydrolysis and contain as many as 3000 monosacharride units are polysaccharides

o As a rule they are not sweet, not soluble in water and not readily obtained in crystalline
form. They may be subclassified according to the characteristic monosaccharide or
element they contain such as :

 Pentosan- are present in straw, oat hulls, corn cobs, wheat bran, most words
and certain gums

 Hexosans include glucosans in cellulos,starch, dextrin, glycogen;galactans in

gums, algae , agar, molasses and fruit pectin and fructosan in insulin

 Nitrogen containing polysaccharide

- Three important poly saccharides are:

1. Starch

- It is the most important source of carbohydrates, an essential part of the human diet
 - The most common form of starch are mixture of amylose. They are two distinct substance
but both yield glucose on hydrolysis.

- Amylopectin is similar to amylose but has much larger molecule and has alpha 1,6 branches
every 20-24 glucose unit

2. Cellulose

- The glucose unit are held together by glycosidic linkages between carbon 1 and the beta
position on the first glucose and carbon 4 on the second glucose called beta (1,4) glycosidic
bond

3. Glycogen

- It is the major glucose storage molecule of animals, that is why it is sometime called animal
starch

CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF CARBOHYDRATES

1. Reducing Property

- All mono and disaccharides containg potentially free aldehyde or ketone group are reducing

2. Osazon crystal formation

- When heated with excess phennylhydrazine, sugars containing the potentially free aldehyde
and ketone groups form characteristic osazone crystal with definite melting point

3. Reaction with alkali

- When heated with stron alkali reducing sugar turn yello to brown lberating the odor of
caramel. This becomes more marked upon acidification

4. Reaction with acid

- Disaccharides and other higher carbohydrates combine more readily with acids due to the
fact that during the polymerization, their acid property is depressed and they become more
alkaline

5. Esterification

- Some carbohydrates undergo esterification. Due to the presence of the primary alcohol
group in the sugar molecule, it can react with an oxyacid to form an ester

6. Fermentation
 - This is a process which involves the decomposition of carbohydrates brought about by the
action of microorganism like yeast, bacteria, etc., forming ethyl alcohol and liberating
carbon dioxide.

7. Hydrolysis

- The higher the sugars to form two molecules of monosaccharides

8. Optical activity

- Some sugar possess the capability of rotation rays of polarized light.

 By this time, you must have seen that the same chemical principle and chemical reactions
associated with the various organic functional groups you have previously studied apply to
these larger biochemical compounds.

Protein

- The word protein is derived from the greek word meaning “of first importance”

- The protein are divided into three large divisions according to different in component units
and physical properties.

- Simple proteins yield primarily amino acids upon hydrolysis

- Conjugated protenins are made up of proteins combined with some other compound which
are non protein

- Derived proteins are those formed by the partial hydrolysis of naturally occurring proteins.

 Physical Properties

- The protein are colloidal substances.

- They are most sensitive to coagulation at their isoelectric point

NOTE: The iso electric point is the PH at which protein molecule is electrically neutral and will
not move in electric field

 Chemical Properties

- Proteins are ampotheric due to the presence of both the amino and carboxyl groups n their
amino acid components

- Proteins are affected at varying degrees by heat. Solutions of proteins when heated may
undergo intramolecular rearrangement rendering them insoluble but more readily digestible
 - Proteins are denatured by acid, alcohol, salts of heavy metals and alkaloidal reagent

- Proteins are hydrolyzed by acid, alkali or enzymes and are broken intro fragments of
diminishing complexity

Amino Acids

- Proteins are built from amino acids, which in some cases contain complex R substituents.
The amino acids are of the alph form

- Depending on the number of amino and carboxyl groups present in the molecule the amino
acid may be classified as

1. Neutral, is it ontains equal number of NH2 and COOH groups

2. Acidic- contain more COOH than NH2 groups

3. Basic contain more NH2 than COOH groups

- Essential amino acids are thos indispensable for biological needs of the body. They cannot
be synthesized by the body in sufficient amount so they much ne supplied from food source

Protein structures can be characterized into four differenct categories

 1. The primary structure of a
protein is given by its amino
sequence. This structutre
results from the covalent
peptide bond between the
amino acids. Peptide bonds
are amide bonds between
the carbosyl group of one
amino acid and the amino
group of another

2. The secondary structure of

protein is the specific
geometric orientation of
the amino acids in space which is the result of hydrogen bonding. The mose common types of
secondary structure are the alpha helix and pleated sheet

3. The tertiary structures refers to the characteristic conformation of protein molecule which
results from bending and folding due to interactions between amino acids which are
significantly part on the chain

4. The quarternary structures of the protein refers to the shape of the entire complex molecule
with two or more subunits held together by interactions between the chains.

The nucleic Acids

- Nucleic acid are so named because the first ones identified came from cell nuclei.

- There are two type of nucleic acid

o Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) which is primarily responsible for the transfer of

genetic information

o Ribonucleic Acid(RNA) which is

primarily responsible for he
protein sysnthesis

- Nucleic acids are long chain like

molecules with very large molecular
masses. The are composed of thousands
of repeating units called nucleotides
- According to Watson Crick model, a DNA molecule consists of two polynucletide chains
coiled around each other in a helical screw like fashion

- Three fundamental process: replication transcription and translation take place in the
copying or duplication transfer and use of genetic information