Question

What are polysaccharides?

Answer 1

Carbohydrates

• They are categorized based on how they react to hydrolysis.
• They have been broadly classified into three groups.
• Monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides are the three groups.

Polysaccharides

• Polysaccharides are carbohydrates that on hydrolysis release a large number of monosaccharide units.
• Starch, cellulose, and glycogen are examples of polysaccharides.
• Also, Glycogen is a polysaccharide made up of glucose units. It is a branched polysaccharide wherein, glucose molecules form a chain and are linked by alpha-1-4 linkage and the branch of glucose is linked to the main chain by alpha-1-6 linkage.
• Polysaccharides are composed of several monosaccharide units linked together by glycosidic linkage.