Sugars in Decaying Plants: What Happens?

[GiTS]

What happens to the sugars in a plant when the plant decays?

 

[Bystander]

Long's this is homework, give us your thoughts, first --- then, we'll steer you toward an answer.

 

[GiTS]

it's not for homework. I'm wondering why plants can't be left to decay then the decayed material thrown in a vat of yeast and turned into alcohol. from what I've read all plant's conatain sugars that can be turned into alcohol but it's contained within the plant's cell walls and the only known method of extracting the sugars is to destroy the cell walls by mechanical action or acid.

edit: and for that matter, are sugars just naturally unstable compund that rapidly decay once a plant dies or is it bacteria that breaks up plant cell walls also breaks up the sugars?