Biological molecules

Carbohydrates, Proteins & Lipids

 Identify the chemical elements present in carbohydrates, proteins and lipids (fats and
oils)

 Most of the molecules in living organisms fall into three categories: carbohydrates, proteins and
lipids
 These all contain carbon and so are described as organic molecules

Structure of Carbohydrates Proteins & Lipids

 Describe the structure of carbohydrates, proteins and lipids as large molecules made
up from smaller basic units: starch and glycogen from simple sugars, proteins from
amino acids, and lipids from fatty acids and glycerol

Carbohydrates

 Basic unit of all carbohydrates are simple sugars

 Glucose is a simple sugar (a monosaccharide)
 When 2 glucose molecules join together maltose is formed (a disaccharide)
 When lots of glucose molecules join together starch or glycogen is formed (polysaccharides)

Structure of starch
Carbohydrates are made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. They are used as a source of energy for the
body. There are three types of carbohydrates: Monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides. 

 Monosaccharides (i.e. glucose) are the simplest form of sugars. They are a single unit and they
cannot be broken down any further to make a simpler sugar.
 Disaccharides are literally two monosaccharides joined together.
 Polysaccharides are large chains of monosaccharides joined together 
o Starch is a polysaccharide made of large chains of glucose and glycogen 
o Cellulose is a polysaccharide made of large chains of glucose 

Proteins

 The basic unit of all protein molecules is the amino acid

 There are about 20 different amino acids
 They all contain the same basic structure but the ‘R’ group is different for each one
 When amino acids are joined together a protein is formed
 The amino acids can be arranged in any order, resulting in hundreds of thousands of different
proteins
 Even a small difference in the order of the amino acids results in a different protein being
formed
 General structure of amino acids

Proteins are made of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sometimes sulfur or phosphorus. They
are extremely important to the body and serve many different functions. here are a few: 

 Growth
 Tissue repair 
 Cell membrane formation
 Source of energy 

Proteins are made of long chains of amino acids chemically bonded to each other. There are about 20
different amino acids that are found in the human body. Different combinations of these amino acids
will give rise to different proteins. 

For example, each of the different colored circles represent a different amino acid. They are joined in a
specific sequence as shown below: 
It is really important to understand here that the final 3D structure of a protein is derived from the
specific interactions between amino acids that are joined in the protein chain.

How amino acids form proteins

Lipids

 Most lipids in the body are made up of triglycerides

 Their basic unit is 1 glycerol molecule and 3 fatty acid chains
 The fatty acids vary in size and structure
 Lipids are divided into fats (solids at room temperature) and oils (liquids at room temperature)

A triglyceride
Fats are made up of three fatty acid units attached to a single unit of glycerol: 

 Fats are made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. The oxygen content is lower than in carbohydrates.
Fats have various purposes in the body:

 Source of energy. In fact, they have two times higher energy content than carbohydrates!
 Heat insulation
 Myelin sheath formation
 Cell membrane formation

Food Tests

 Practical: investigate food samples for the presence of glucose, starch, protein
and fat

Test for Glucose

 Add Benedict’s solution into sample solution in test tube

 Heat at 60 – 70 °c in water bath for 5 minutes
 Take test tube out of water bath and observe the colour
 A positive test will show a colour change from blue to orange or brick red
 Testing for glucose using Benedict’s solution

A sugar that serves as a reducing agent due to its free aldehyde or ketone functional groups in
its molecular structure. Examples are glucose, fructose, glyceraldehydes, lactose, arabinose and
maltose, except for sucrose.

Following are the examples of non-reducing sugar:

 Sucrose.
 Trehalose.
 Raffinose.
 Stachyose.
 Verbascose.
Test for Starch

 Add drops of iodine solution to the food sample

o A positive test will show a colour change from brown to blue-black

Testing for starch using Iodine solution

Test for Protein

 Add drops of Biuret solution to the food sample

 A positive test will show a colour change from blue to violet / purple

Using the biuret test to detect proteins

Test for Lipid

 Food sample is mixed with 2cm3 of ethanol and shaken

 The ethanol is added to an equal volume of cold water
 A positive test will show a cloudy emulsion forming

Using the ethanol test to detect lipids

DNA structure

As you may already know, genetic information is stored inside our DNA. Whilst you do not need to go
into full depth with this, CIE wants you to understand the generic structure of a DNA molecule: 

 
So, first of all, a DNA has a double helix structure whereby two strands are coiled together. Each strand
has chemicals called bases. The double helix is held together via pairs of bases that are attracted to each
other from one strand to the other. 

Bases will always pair up in the same way. Adenine (A) will always pair with Thymine (T). Cytosine (C)
will always pair with Guanine (G). The diagram above demonstrates this pairing (i.e. green is always
bonded to purple and pink is always bonded to blue). 

Water 

CIE wants you to understand the importance of water. Indeed, water is essential to the human body for
many things. One of these things being the fact that water is an important solvent. This means that
nutrients and wastes can be dissolved in water so that it can be transported around the body.
Moreover, majority of our chemical reactions inside our bodies are controlled by enzymes. Enzymes
cannot work unless it is in solution (i.e. in the presence of water).