Biological compounds carbohydrates

Comprehensive Organic Chemistry , Pergamon, Elmsford, NY, 1979, is a six-volume treatise on the synthesis and reactions of organic compounds. The first three volumes cover the various functional groups, vol. 4, heterocyclic compounds, and vol. 5, biological compounds such as proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids. Probably the most useful volume is vol. 6, which contains formula, subject, and author indexes, as well as indexes of reactions and... 

Warner, D.T. (1962). Some possible relationships of carbohydrates and other biological compounds with water structure at 37°. Nature, 196, 1053-8. 

The type of data produced in a f.a.b. experiment is affected by the pH and ionic strength of the matrix. The former may be controlled either by the addition of acids or bases, although, in practice, it is usually preferable to keep the matrix acidic. The ionic strength is partly dictated by the purity of the sample (many biological compounds are still contaminated with salts, even after extensive purification) and partly by exogenous additives. Three additives are especially useful for carbohydrate work. They are as follows. 

Glycoproteins, proteins that contain covalently bound carbohydrates, comprise one of the most important classes of biological compounds. They are widely distributed in animals, plants, and micro-or-... 

Carbohydrates are the most abundant of all organic compounds in the biosphere. Many members of the carbohydrate class have the empirical formula Cx(H20)y, and are literally hydrates of carbon. The fundamental units of the carbohydrate class, the monosaccharides, are polyhydroxy aldehydes or ketones and certain of their derivatives. As with other classes of biologically important compounds, much of the function of the carbohydrates derives from the ability of the monosaccharides to combine, with loss of water, to form polymers oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. The chemistry of carbohydrates is, at its core, the chemistry of carbonyl and hydroxyl functional groups, but these functional groups, when found in the same compound, sometimes exhibit atypical properties. The discussion that follows is designed to review the aspects of carbohydrate chemistry that are especially important for isolation, analysis, and structure determination of biologically important carbohydrates. 

A biological compound that contains a large proportion of C—H bonds and less oxygen than in carbohydrates is called a lipid. Fats, oils, and waxes are aU lipids. Lipids are insoluble in water and soluble in nonpolar organic solvents. In general, lipids that are derived from animals are called fats, and plant lipids are called oils. Lipid molecules are found in... 

Biological membranes are bilayers and contain several types of lipids some more often associated with the outside face of the cell, and others face the inside. Biological membranes also contain a large number of protein components. Membranes are semipermeable, naturally excluding hydrophilic compounds (carbohydrates, proteins, and ions, for example) while allowing oxygen, proteins, and water to pass freely. 

Griffiths, W.J., Shackleton, C., Sjdvall, J. (2005) Steroid analysis. In The Encyclopaedia of Mass Spectrometry Volume 3. Biological Applications Carbohydrates, Nucleic Acids and Other Biological Compounds, edited by Caprioli, R.M., Gross, M L. Oxford, UK Elsevier Ltd. 

The polysaccharides of the ginseng comprised 40 % (by weight) of the root. This class of compound was first isolated and documented in 1966 [20]. Most biologically active carbohydrates in ginseng are acidic polysaccharides, known as ginsan, which have the typical structure of pectin [21, 22]. 

Although cobalt ions are found in both the (II) and (III) oxidation states, the most important biological compound of cobalt is vitamin B12 or cobalamin where the Co(III) form is present (256) (Fig. 6.10). Cobalamin or related substances are important biological compounds that are involved in a great variety of activities, particularly in bacteria. Vitamin B12 is also necessary in the nutrition of humans and probably of most animal and plant species. It is of critical importance in the reactions by which residues from carbohydrates, fats and proteins, are used to produce energy in living cells. Pernicious anemia is a severe disease in elderly people. This disease is usually accompanied in mammals by the increased excretion of methylmalonic acid in the urine. Today it is effectively controlled by a 100 /ig injection of vitamin B,2. 

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