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.
Glycome
"Carbohydrate", "glycan", "saccharide", and "sugar" are generic terms used interchangeably in this context and includes monosaccharides, oligosaccharides, polysaccharides, and derivatives of these compounds. Carbohydrates consist of “hydrated carbon”, i.e. [CHO]n. Monosaccharides are a carbohydrate that cannot be hydrolyzed into a simpler carbohydrate and are the building blocks of oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. Oligosaccharides are linear or branched chains of monosaccharides attached to one another via glycosidic linkages. The number of monosaccharide units can vary. Polysaccharides are glycans composed of repeating monosaccharides, generally greater than ten monosaccharide units in length.