Food chemistry
Comprising 75% of the biological world and 80% of all food intake for human consumption, the most common known human carbohydrate is Sucrose. The simplest version of a carbohydrate is a monosaccharide which contains carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen in a 1:2:1 ratio under a general formula of CHO where n is a minimum of 3. Glucose is an example of a monosaccharide as is fructose. Combine them in the picture shown to the right and you have sucrose, one of the more common sugar products around.
Natural product
Carbohydrate are the products of plant photosynthesis and animal gluconeogenesis. Photosynthesis produces initially 3-phosphoglyceraldehyde, a three carbon atom containing sugar (a triose). This triose in turn may be converted into glucose (a six carbon atom containing sugar) or a variety of pentoses (five carbon atom containing sugars) through the Calvin cycle. In animals, the three carbon precursors lactate or glycerol can be converted into pyruvate which in turn can be converted into carbohydrates in the liver.