• A building block of plant cells and fiber. Cellulose cannot be digested by people, and is used to add bulk to the diet.
  NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms
  U.S. National Cancer Institute, 2021
• A polysaccharide consisting of linear beta-(1,4)-linked glycolpyranoside units. Humans lack digestive enzymes to cleave beta-(1,4) linkages and thus cannot absorb glucose from cellulose. (DRI)
  CRCH Nutrition Terminology
  Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, University of Hawaii, 2021
• A polysaccharide with glucose units linked as in CELLOBIOSE. It is the chief constituent of plant fibers, cotton being the purest natural form of the substance. As a raw material, it forms the basis for many derivatives used in chromatography, ion exchange materials, explosives manufacturing, and pharmaceutical preparations.
  NLM Medical Subject Headings
  U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2025
• Polysaccharide with glucose units linked; chief constituent of plant fibers.
  CRISP Thesaurus
  National Institutes of Health, 2006
• Cellulose, a complex carbohydrate, or polysaccharide, consisting of 3,000 or more glucose units. The basic structural component of plant cell walls, cellulose comprises about 33 percent of all vegetable matter (90 percent of cotton and 50 percent of wood are cellulose) and is the most abundant of...
  Encyclopedia Britannica
  Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 2025