Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index In biochemistry, monosaccharides are carbohydrates in the form of simple sugars. Monosaccharides, like disaccharides, are sweet, water soluble and crystalline. Monosaccharides are classified by the number of carbon molecules they contain (triose, tetrose, pentose, hexose and heptose) and by the active group, which is either an aldehyde or a ketone. These are then combined, e.g. aldohexoses, ketotrioses. Examples include the hexoses (glucose, fructose, and galactose) and pentoses (ribose, deoxyribose). Structure With a few notable exceptions (e.g. deoxyribose), they have the general formula: (CH2O)n This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.