The Sunlight Experiment

Compound Class

Carbohydrates

Sugars and their polymers — the immune-active polysaccharides, soothing mucilages, and prebiotic fibers of medicinal plants.

35 Constituents4 Subclasses53 Source herbs

Overview

What Are Carbohydrates?

Carbohydrates are sugars and their polymers, built almost entirely from carbon, hydrogen and oxygen — the name reflects their formulaic character as “hydrated carbon”. They range from single sugar units up to vast chains of thousands.

They are the most abundant biomolecules in the plant kingdom, forming both the structural scaffolding of cell walls and the energy reserves laid down in roots, seeds and tubers. Only a fraction of that vast pool, however, is medicinally active in any meaningful sense.

01

How Carbohydrates Are Built

The class is organized by chain length, which largely determines how a carbohydrate behaves in the body:

Monosaccharides
single sugar units (glucose, fructose)
Disaccharides
two units joined (sucrose, maltose)
Oligosaccharides
short chains, including the prebiotic fructans
Polysaccharides
long chains (starch, cellulose, mucilage, beta-glucans)
Sugar alcohols
reduced sugars (xylitol, sorbitol)

Short sugars are sweet and readily absorbed; long chains are neither, and it is the long chains that carry most of the medicinal interest.

02

Where Carbohydrates Occur

Every plant is largely built of carbohydrate, but the medicinally useful forms concentrate in particular tissues and families:

Roots and tubers, as starch reserves

Mucilaginous herbs

marshmallow, slippery elm, aloe

Medicinal mushrooms, rich in beta-glucans

Chicory, burdock and Jerusalem artichoke, rich in inulin

Seaweeds, source of alginates and carrageenan

A herb valued as a demulcent or an immune tonic is very often working through its polysaccharide fraction.

03

Pharmacological Importance

The active carbohydrates work in three broad ways. Mucilages are demulcent: they swell in water to form a gel that coats and soothes irritated membranes, which is the basis of marshmallow and slippery elm.

Beta-glucans and related polysaccharides are immune-modulating, and are the principal researched constituents of the medicinal mushrooms. Fructans and other fermentable fibers act as prebiotics, feeding beneficial gut bacteria rather than acting on the body directly.

04

Toxicity & Safety

Medicinally relevant carbohydrates are among the safest of all constituent classes. True toxicity is rare.

The usual caveats are digestive rather than poisonous: fermentable fibers and fructans can produce gas and bloating, and sugar alcohols are laxative in quantity. Bulk-forming mucilages should be taken with adequate water, and can slow the absorption of medicines taken at the same time.

Constituents

All Carbohydrates

35 total

A

Acemannan 1 herb Arabinogalactan 1 herb Arabinogalactans 3 herbs · 1 supp Arabinopyranosides 1 herb Arabinoxylan 1 herb

B

Beta-glucans 5 herbs

C

Cellulose 1 herb Chitin 1 herb Cordycepic acid 1 herb

D

D-glucan 1 herb d-pinitol 1 herb

E

Eleutherans 1 herb Ephedrans 1 herb

F

Fructans 1 herb

G

Ganoderan B 1 herb Ganoderan C 1 herb Gentiobiose 1 herb Glycans 1 herb Gum arabic 1 herb

I

Inositol 1 herb Inulin 4 herbs

M

Mannitol 1 herb Monosaccharides 1 herb Mucilage 16 herbs
Open in filterable index

Source Plants

Herbs Containing Carbohydrates

53 herbs

Plants in the materia medica documented to carry carbohydrates, with the compounds each one is listed for. The bar counts how many DISTINCT carbohydrates are on record for a plant, relative to the best-documented — it measures breadth of record, not potency, so a plant with one well-studied compound can outrank a richer source that has simply been analysed less. Where a measured concentration is on record it is quoted inline; most entries have none yet.

Marshmallow Althaea officinalis Documented for arabinogalactans, cellulose, D-glucan and 2 more carbohydrates. 5 Carbohydrates Couchgrass Elymus repens Documented for inositol, mannitol, mucilage and 1 more. 4 Carbohydrates Reishi Ganoderma lucidum Documented for beta-glucans, ganoderan B, ganoderan C and 1 more. 4 Carbohydrates Calendula Calendula officinalis Documented for arabinogalactans, polysaccharides, rhamnogalacturonans. 3 Carbohydrates Cordyceps Ophiocordyceps sinensis Documented for beta-glucans, cordycepic acid, polysaccharides. 3 Carbohydrates Psyllium Plantago ovata Documented for arabinoxylan, mucilage, soluble fiber. 3 Carbohydrates Acacia Acacia, Vachellia & Senegalia spp. Documented for arabinogalactan, gum arabic. 2 Carbohydrates Aloe Aloe vera Documented for acemannan, polysaccharides. 2 Carbohydrates Asian Ginseng Panax ginseng Documented for glycans, polysaccharides. 2 Carbohydrates Burdock Arctium lappa Documented for inulin (40–50 % dry wt), mucilage. 2 Carbohydrates Chaga Inonotus obliquus Documented for beta-glucans, polysaccharides. 2 Carbohydrates Codonopsis Codonopsis pilosula Documented for mucilage, polysaccharides. 2 Carbohydrates

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