Directions
So far we’ve learned that a monosaccharide is the simplest form of sugar (like glucose and fructose). And a disaccharide is a sugar made of two monosaccharides bonded together (like maltose and sucrose).
But there are more complex carbohydrates than these simple sugars—such as starch.
Starch is made of thousands of glucose molecules linked in a long chain. Starch is a type of polysaccharide, or complex carbohydrate. The prefix poly- means many, and saccharide is another word for carbohydrate.
Even though starch is made up of many glucose molecules, starch is not sweet like glucose. Compare a spoonful of cornstarch to a spoonful of sugar! This is because starch molecules are too big to activate the sweetness receptors on our tongues.