Everything about Reducing Sugar totally explained
A
reducing sugar is any sugar that, in basic solution, forms some
aldehyde or
ketone. This allows the sugar to act as a
reducing agent, for example in the
Maillard reaction and
Benedict's reaction.
Reducing sugars include
glucose,
fructose,
glyceraldehyde,
lactose,
arabinose and
maltose. All monosaccharides which contain
ketone groups are known as
ketoses, and those which contain
aldehyde groups are known as
aldoses. Significantly,
sucrose isn't a reducing sugar.
Benedict's reagent is used to determine if a reducing sugar is present. If it's a reducing sugar, the mixture will turn green/orange/red.
Fehling's solution can also be used for the same purpose, as both contain copper (II) ions, which are reduced to a brick red precipitate of copper (I) oxide when the solution is heated.
A reducing sugar occurs when its
anomeric carbon is in the free form.
Since sugars occur in a chain as well as a ring structure, it's possible to have an equilibrium between these two forms. When the hemi-acetal or ketal hydroxyl group is free, for example it isn't locked, not linked to another (sugar)molecule, the aldehyde (or keto-) form (for example the chain-form) is available for reducing copper (II) ions. When a sugar is oxidized, its
carbonyl group (for example aldehyde or ketone group) is converted to a
carboxyl group.
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