VPB 112: General Veterinary Biochemistry (1+1)

SUCROSE

• Sucrose, the common table sugar is produced by plants but not by higher animals. Sugar beets and sugar canes are the common sources of sucrose.
• On hydrolysis, sucrose yields one molecule each of α-D-glucose and β -D-fructose, but in contrast to other mono and disaccharides, sucrose is not a reducing sugar.
• This means that the reducing groups in both of the monosaccharide components (C-1 of glucose and C-2 of fructose) are linked through O – glycosidic bond.
• Sucrose is a dextrorotatory (+ 66.5^o). When hydrolyzed with dil. HCl or enzyme sucrase, sucrose produces mixture containing glucose and fructose. The levo rotation of fructose is greater than the dextro rotation of glucose. Hence, the resultant mixture is levo-rotatory (-28.2^o). This process of change in rotation is known as inversion. The mixture is known as invert sugar.