Are all carbohydrates a subset of alcohols?

Question

According to the definition,

an alcohol is any organic compound in which the hydroxyl functional group (-OH) is bound to a saturated carbon atom.

Monosaccharides such as glucose contain several hydroxyl groups. Does that mean all carbohydrates are a subset of alcohols?

$\begingroup$ Yes, it does, why the doubt? $\endgroup$
– Mithoron
Aug 29, 2015 at 13:01 — Mithoron, Aug 29, 2015 at 13:01

Mithoron · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-14 14:26:29Z

2

Whenever you see -OH is bound to a saturated carbon atom in organic chemistry it is Alcohol group.

So answer is YES. All carbohydrates are subset of alcohols.

Though in linear forms they also have aldehyde or ketone group.

Mithoron

4,43214 gold badges39 silver badges60 bronze badges

answered Aug 29, 2015 at 15:02

Freddy

5,0278 gold badges39 silver badges68 bronze badges

1

$\begingroup$ Roughly speaking, nearly any sufficiently large bioorganic molecule is a member of all classes at once. $\endgroup$
– Ivan Neretin
Sep 14, 2015 at 15:06

Add a comment |

1 Answer 1