What are the functional groups in polysaccharides?
1 Answer
Dec 3, 2014
The two important functional groups in most polysaccharides are the hydroxyl group and the acetal group.
Starch is a typical polysaccharide. Its partial structure is
There are many OH groups (alcohol or hydroxyl groups).
There is also the glycosidic linkage that joins C-1 of one ring to C-4 of the next ring.
It looks like an ether.
But it isn't an ether, because it has two O atoms attached to C-1 of the glucose unit. It is an acetal.
The general structure of an acetal is
It has a C, an H, and two OR groups directly attached to the central C atom.
So a polysaccharide contains both hydroxyl and acetal functional groups.
