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What is the carbohydrate found in almonds, cashews, pecans, hazelnuts, and pistachios? I first thought they probably have starch but I am not sure. Can someone verify this for me, and/or send a link where I could find this information?

Brian Blumberg
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Firstly you must realize that all the above mentioned nuts are actually the seeds of plants.

So the question now is which carbohydrate is mainly found in seeds of plants.

During the double fertilization of angiosperms, one sperm fertilizes the egg to form the embryo while the other fertilizes the endosperm nucleus to form the endosperm which acts as the nutrient storage for seeds.

The major carbohydrate for seed endosperm is Starch, often stored as granules for their property as being insoluble and compact.

However there are other carbohydrates such as free sugars, glucofructans and hemicelluoses present.

Hope this helped.

References https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4615-2672-8_8

A summary of all the nutrients in an endosperm

user35897
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  • For the plants listed in the question (almonds, cashews, pecans, hazelnuts, pistachios) the primary storage is not the endosperm but the cotyledons. These seeds have two distinct halves, each a cotyledon, with an embryo sandwiched between. Starch is likely the most abundant carbohydrate, but there are other "nonstructural carbohydrates" as well as cellulose. Since these are intact cells that may go on to photosynthesize, these carbohydrates can be very diverse, and will differ between the species. Note, too, that these seeds will store many other nutrients, like proteins and fats. – Darlingtonia Aug 11 '22 at 19:26