Photosynthesis into Primary and Secondary Processes

Division of Photosynthesis into Primary and Secondary Processes 

In photosynthesis the CO2 of the air and H2O are converted into carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are compounds which contain, in addition to carbon, the elements hydrogen and oxygen in the same ratio as that in which they occur in water. Thus, the simplest carbohydrate has the formula CH2O, as is shown by the equation  

In fact, there is a compound that corresponds to the formula of the simplest carbohydrate, namely formaldehyde. At one time it was assumed that formaldehyde was the first carbohydrate to be synthesized in the 

According to this equation 62 is liberated. This implies that we must revise the overall equation instead of H2O or H20 we must write 2H2O. We thus arrive at the following overall equation  

We must also take into account the fact that photosynthesis leads eventually to important products, the hexoses, that is carbohydrates containing six carbon atoms. This leads to a further revision of our overall equation  

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A. Division of Photosynthesis into Primary and Secondary Processes... 

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