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Sucrose

The most common disaccharide is sucrose, or table sugar, which is composed of the monomers glucose and fructose. It is the most common type of sugar found in foods and drinks. For example, freshly squeezed orange juice has a high sugar content while mineral water has none.

Sucrose is added to many processed foods and drinks to improve their taste and texture. It is also found naturally in fruits, vegetables, and milk.

Sucrose is made from a fructose and a glucose monomer connected by a glycosidic bond. Both glucose and fructose have the chemical formula, C 6, H 12, O 6, but glucose is in a 6 membered ring form and fructose is in a 5 membered ring form. The 6-membered ring form of glucose is made of carbons 1 to 5, with oxygen between carbon 1 and carbon 5. The OH groups at carbons 2 and 4 point down. The O H group at carbon 3, and the C H 2 O H group at carbon 5, point up. The 5-membered ring form of fructose is made of carbons 2 to 5, with oxygen between carbon 2 and carbon 5. The O H groups at carbons 2 and 3, and the C H 2 O H group at carbon 5, point up. The O H group at carbon 4, and the C H 2 O H groups at carbon 2, point down. The glycosidic bond goes from carbon 1 in glucose 1, to oxygen, to carbon 4 in fructose.

Figure 1: Chemical structure of sucrose.

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Fructose