Polysaccharides are important biological molecules which belong to a more general class of compounds called carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are organic materials that contain carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. They are the most abundant component of plants and are typically produced by photosynthesis. Polysaccharides have the largest molecular structure of any other type of carbohydrate. They are macromolecules, or condensation polymers, made up of thousands of monosaccharide units typically linked together by an oxygen atoms. The term polysaccharide refers to polymers that are composed of ten or more monosaccharide units. Polymers that consist of three to nine monosaccharides are called oligosaccharides.

The chemical reactions that produce polysaccharides from monosaccharides are reversible. When a polysaccharide is reacted with water and an acid, monosaccharides result. These are sugar molecules that are classified by their functional group. Depending on the location of their carbonyl group, the sugar can either be an aldose or a...