2.2.

3 Sucrose
Sucrose is a common, naturally occurring carbohydrate found in many plants and plant
part, but with the advent of industrialization, it is increasingly produced and consumed in
many processed foods. Saccharose is an obsolete name for sugars in general, especially
sucrose. The molecule is a disaccharide combination of the monosaccharides glucose and
fructose with the formula C12H22O11. Sucrose is often extracted and refined from either cane
or beet sugar for human consumption. Modern industrial sugar refinement processes often
involve bleaching and crystallization, producing a white, odorless, crystalline powder with
a sweet taste of pure sucrose, devoid of vitamins and minerals. This refined form of sucrose
is commonly referred to as table sugar or just sugar. It plays a central role as an additive in
food production and food consumption all over the world. About 175 million metric tons of
sucrose were produced worldwide in 2013. (Anonymous, 2013)
In nature, sucrose is present in many plant roots, fruits and nectars, and serves to store
energy, primarily from photosynthesis. Many mammals, birds, insects, and bacteria
accumulate and feed on the sucrose in plants, and for some it is the primary food. From the
perspective of human consumption, honeybees are especially important because they
accumulate sucrose and produce honey, an important foodstuff all over the world. The
carbohydrates in honey itself consist primarily of fructose and glucose with trace amounts
of sucrose. As fruits ripen, the sucrose content usually rises sharply, but some fruits contain
almost no sucrose even when ripe, examples of which include grapes, cherries, blueberries,
blackberries, figs, pomegranates, tomatoes, avocados, lemons, and limes (Yudkin, 1973).

The equation for the reaction is:

C6H12O6 + C6H12O6 C12H22O11 + H2O
Glucose + fructose sucrose + water (Helmenstine, 2016)

(Anonymous, nd)

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF SUCROSE

Pure sucrose is most often prepared as a fine, colorless, odorless crystalline powder with a
pleasing, sweet taste. Large crystals are sometimes precipitated from water solutions of
sucrose onto a string (or other nucleation surface) to form rock candy, a confection.
Sucrose melts and decomposes at 160C -186C to form caramel, and when combusted
produces carbon, carbon dioxide, and water. Sucrose has a density of 1.775g/cm 3 and its
solubility in water is 2000g/L (Budavari, 1996).

CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF SUCROSE

Like other carbohydrates, sucrose has a hydrogen to oxygen ratio of 2:1. It consists of two
monosaccharides, -glucose and fructose, joined by a glycosidic bond between carbon
atom 1 of the glucose unit and carbon atom 2 of the fructose unit. What is notable about
sucrose is that unlike most polysaccharides, the glycosidic bond is formed between the
reducing ends of both glucose and fructose, and not between the reducing end of one and
the non-reducing end of the other. The effect of this inhibits further bonding to other
saccharide units. Since it contains no free anomeric carbon atom, it is classified as a nonreducing sugar. Water breaks down sucrose by hydrolysis, however the process is so
gradual that it could sit in solution for years with negligible change. If the enzyme sucrase
is added however, the reaction will proceed rapidly. Sucrose is a flammable substance, and
can ignite and combust in the presence of a flame, it has a low gradient of flammability and
can be burned with a gentle flame. When introduced with acids, Sucrose can react
explosively with oxidizing agents such as chlorates and perchlorates. It is hydrolyzed by
dilute acids and by invertase (a yeast enzyme) and chars rapidly and exothermically when
mixed with concentrated sulphuric acid (Yudkin, 1973).
Reacting sucrose with sulfuric acid dehydrates the sucrose and forms elemental carbon, as
demonstrated in the following equation:C12H22O11 + H2SO4 catalyst

12 C + 11 H2O

In terms of reactivity with salts, metals, and bases, sucrose is unreactive, as it is with any
compound other than acids (oxidizers only help it to combust - no reaction when mixed). In
solution sucrose is neutral to litmus (Wiley, 1997)

References

Bender, D. A., and A. E. Bender. 2005. A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. New
York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198609612.

University of Texas as Austin. Retrieved November 18, 2007.

O'Neil, M. J. 2001. The Merck Index: An Encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs, and

Biologicals. Whitehouse Station, N.J.: Merck. ISBN 0911910131.

Lewis, R.J. Sr.; Hawleys Condensed Chemical Dictionary 15th Edition.

John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, NY 2007. p. 736

Yalkowsky, S.H., He, Yan., Handbook of Aqueous Solubility Data: An Extensive

Compilation of Aqueous Solubility Data for Organic Compounds Extracted from
the AQUASOL dATAbASE, CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL. 2003., p. 881

Sources, Available from <http://www.nakka-rocketry.net/sucrose.html> [Accessed

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Chemical Safety, November 2003

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