Galactans

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Complex carbohydrates built from many galactose sugar units, found in certain seaweeds and plant cell walls
2. Polymers composed of linked galactose residues that occur in red algae and some plant tissues
3. Long-chain sugar molecules formed by galactose monomers, often extracted from seaweed and legume seeds

Etymology: "Galactans" is the plural of "galactan", a term from carbohydrate chemistry for a polysaccharide built from galactose units. The plural is used when referring to several such molecules or to the class of them. The base word is itself formed from "galact-", the combining form of the Greek "gala" (milk), and the suffix "-an", the usual chemical ending for polysaccharides, so the name points back to milk sugar, galactose, which was first identified in lactose.