Module 1: Chemistry of Carbohydrates

Sugars can be converted from one-form to another - from aldose to ketose.
Polysaccharide molecules, isolated from natural sources, have a lot of applications useful in chemical biology.
Heparin is a polysaccharide obtained from animal tissue and widely used as an anticoagulant.
Alginic acid, a polysaccharide obtained mainly from marine sources, is used as a thickening agent in food industry as well as a waterproofing and dehydrating agent in certain industries.
Most of these polysaccharide molecules are non-toxic to cells and can be used as drug-delivery agents.
Nowadays nanoparticles of polysaccharides are widely used in medicinal chemistry for drug delivery as well as therapeutics.
The nanoparticles ca be synthesized in the laboratory.