Carbohydrates (sugar)

Monosaccharides

Monosaccharides (shown below) usually have up to 7 carbons (heptose). The most important is glucose, with 6 carbons (hexose):

Glucose, the most important monosaccharide

Monosaccharides usually form a ring structure, but they can also be found as an open chain.

Fructose (below) is know as sugar fruit, as it is found in fruit, honey and also in vegetables. In fruits, fructose may be also found in the form of sucrose.

Fructose

The sugars ribose and deoxyribose, which are part of RNA and DNA respectively, are both pentoses (5 carbons) :

Ribose froms RNA

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Deoxyribose froms DNA