Question

1. Honey is also known as invert sugar. In honey, the sucrose has been hydrolyzed into fructose and glucose. Is honey a reducing or non-reducing sugar? Explain.

2. Starch is a polysaccharide consisting of hundreds of units of glucose. Although glucose is a reducing sugar, starch is not. Explain this phenomenon.

Answer 1

Honey is a reducing sugar because its sucrose is hydrolyzed into fructose and glucose. Starch is a non-reducing sugar because its glucose units are linked together in a way that prevents them from donating electrons.

Step-by-step explanation:

In honey, the sucrose is hydrolyzed into fructose and glucose, making honey a reducing sugar. Reducing sugars are those that can donate electrons in chemical reactions and can be detected by their ability to reduce certain chemicals, such as Benedict's reagent, from one oxidation state to another.

Starch, on the other hand, is a polysaccharide made up of hundreds of glucose units. While glucose is a reducing sugar, starch is not. This is because the glucose units in starch are linked together in a specific way that prevents them from readily donating electrons in chemical reactions, making starch a non-reducing sugar.

Therefore, honey is a reducing sugar and starch is a non-reducing sugar.

Answer 2

Hydrolysis opens up the rings and allows oxidation of fructose, Glucose is already reducing sugar, and therefore, honey after hydrolysis is a reducing sugar and can be thus utilized, by the organisms which do not contain invertase.
Starch do not oxidize and its chemical formula is stable. The rings of starch are not able to open and are required to be hydrolysed in order to open these rings.