Practice Problems Solutions 1. 2. The anomeric carbon of the glucose unit is shown by the arrow. The other saccharide is not glucose because of the axial OH group. Plants store solar energy by harvesting light, water, and carbon dioxide to make carbohydrates, principally glucose. These carbohydrates are stored if not needed immediately.
Humans eat plants, metabolize the starch into glucose.
The glucose is further metabolized into energy, water, and carbon dioxide. Thus, glucose can be viewed as a means by which humans harvest solar energy. By convention, the primary alcohol is shown at the bottom of the Fischer projection. This molecule contains more than two monosaccharide units, so it is a polysaccharide . The glycosidic linkage is beta, so this glucose polymer is cellulose , not starch.