Amyloid — Chambers's Encyclopaedia

Amyloid (Lat. amylum, 'starch') is a term used in Chemistry and Botany, and generally equivalent to 'starchy.' Amyloids are substances like starch, dextrine, sugar, gum, &c., which consist of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, the latter two being always in the proportion in which they occur in water, $H_2O$ . The animal body, chemically considered, is a mixture of Proteids (q.v.), amyloids or carbohydrates, and Fats (q.v.), plus water and mineral constituents, and the normal food always contains these constituents. Of the three items, proteids are, however, absolutely essential, amyloids and fats only desirable accessories. In the human body the most important carbohydrates are glycogen, $C_6H_{10}O_5$ ; grape-sugar or dextrose, $C_6H_{12}O_6$ ; maltose, $C_{12}H_{20}O_{11}$ ; and milk-sugar, $C_{12}H_{22}O_{11}$ . See ANIMAL CHEMISTRY. A compound radical called amyl is formed by the decomposition of starch in a peculiar fermentation—the amylic fermentation—but to it the term amylose has no reference.