Monosaccharides and Oligosaccharides

A monosaccharide, or single sugar, is the basic building block of all sugars and starches. Fructose and dextrose are both monosaccharides. These are the simplest sugars. When fructose and dextrose are bonded together, they form a disaccharide, or double sugar, called sucrose—that is, table sugar. Many monosaccharides linked together in long chains are called polysaccharides. Starches such as cornstarch are made up of such chains, thousands of saccharides long. Although starches are also made up of sugar molecules, they do not taste sweet, and they do not dissolve in water when they are in long chains.