MadSci Network: Biochemistry |
Basically this question is asking "what are the molecules of any biological material", the stuff of a lot of books. The molecules of pizza are the same as molecules found in commonly used food plants and animals. Pizza crust is typically made of flour, water, salt, yeast, sugar. Flour is composed primarily of a complex protein structure called gluten, along with other protein fractions. The proteins, as is true of all proteins, consists of long chains of amino acids. In additin flour has a lot of starch, which is basically long straight and branched chains molecules of glucose. In addition their are various vitamins, mindrerals, fiber, etc. Pizza sauce consists of tomatoes, salt, sugar, spices, thickening agents. Tomatoes consist mostly of water with a fair amount of sugar (depending on how concentrated it is), primarily monosaccharides. It also contains fiber and red coloring compounds such as lycopene. Thickening agents, of which starch is one, are long chain sugar linkage type structures. Cheese is composed mostly of proteins called caseins. There are a variety of casein thypes. Cheese also has a substantial quantity of fat which consists of a glycerin backbone with three fatty acids coming of the three carbons on the glycerine molecule. And like most foods cheese has a lot of water. Meats are composed largely of proteins, similar to the gluten in structure but with different amino acid sequences and much different structure and functions. In short, pizza has an incredible variety and number of specific chemicals.
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