#polysaccharide

• Starch — A macromolecular natural structural polysaccharide, with the general chemical formula (C6H10O5)n, composed of alpha-glucose units linked in linear chains (amylose) and branched chains (amylopectin). It represents the primary energy reserve substance in plants, accumulated in seeds, tubers, and fruits, serving as a fundamental element in human nutrition and a major raw material used in the food, textile, pharmaceutical, and paper industries.
• Amylogenic — Generating or producing starch; a substance, tissue, or cellular plastid (such as an amyloplast) directly involved in the biosynthesis of storage polysaccharides. As a noun, it can historically or contextually refer to the soluble fraction or macromolecular precursor from which starch granules are synthesized in plant cells.
• Amylosphere — A macromolecular formation or spherical cytoplasmic inclusion of a polysaccharide nature, developing inside certain plant cells or lower organisms. It represents a dense structural agglomeration resembling a microscopic starch grain, serving as a focused storage area for reserve carbohydrates.
• Amylose — A linear polysaccharide composed of hundreds to thousands of glucose units joined exclusively by alpha-one-four-glucosidic bonds, which constitutes, alongside amylose, the structural component of starch (representing approximately twenty to thirty percent of its mass). It has a specific helical structure, is soluble in hot water, and yields a characteristic intense blue coloration in the presence of iodine, playing a key role in the textural properties of starch gels.
• Aminose — A generic name given to an amino sugar (or aminose), representing a monosaccharide in whose structure a hydroxyl group (-OH) has been structurally replaced by an amino group (-NH2). The most well-known examples include glucosamine and galactosamine, fundamental compounds that enter the composition of many oligosaccharides, glycoproteins, and essential structural polysaccharides (such as chitin in the exoskeleton of crustaceans or glycosaminoglycans in human cartilage).
• Amino sugar — An organic compound derived from a monosaccharide by the structural replacement of a hydroxyl group (-OH) with an amino group (-NH2). These compounds, also known as aminoses or amino sugars, are fundamental constituents of many structural polysaccharides in nature, such as chitin in the exoskeleton of crustaceans or glycosaminoglycans in human cartilage and connective tissues.