BC. Biological Chemicals

BC. Biological Chemicals

There are several types of chemical compounds that are of particular importance to living organisms:

1. Hydrocarbons [compounds of hydrogen and carbon only]

a alkanes, paraffins, saturated hydrocarbons

e alkenes, olefins

y alkynes [these 3 distinguished by single versus double versus triple bonds between C atoms]

p phenyls

2. Alcohols [compounds of hydrogen, carbon, and OH]

3. Aldehydes (including aldehyde carbonyl)

4. Ketones

5. Ethers

6. Carboxylic acids, fatty acids (including carboxyls)

7. Esters

8. Amines

These are broadly defined in terms of constituent elements. Chemical formulae could be used for other types of chemical [See MM. Molecules] Another possibility is Cutter numbers, but this creates translation problems and some compounds have multiple names and most have two-word names

Glucose is the major energy source in most life forms. For instance, polysaccharides are broken down into their monomers (glycogen phosphorylase removes glucose residues from glycogen). Disaccharides like lactose or sucrose are cleaved into their two component monosaccharides.