Sugar

What is sugar?

Sugar in chemistry is an organic compound that has the general chemical formula (CH₂O)_n  .

What is another name for sugar?

Sugar is also called saccharides. All sugar are carbohydrates but not all carbohydrates are called sugar. Examples of carbohydrates that are not sugar are starch and cellulose.

Level of sweetness of sugar

All sugar are sweet, but sugar differ in the degree of sweetness we perceive when we taste sugar.

• Sucrose is about six times sweeter than lactose.
• Sucrose is slightly sweeter than glucose.
• Sucrose is half as sweet as fructose.

Sucrose is common table sugar. Maltose is malt sugar. Lactose is milk sugar. They are examples of disaccharides.

What happen when sucrose is hydrolyzed?

When sucrose is hydrolyzed, the mixture of glucose and fructose that forms is called invert sugar. The hydrolysis of sucrose produces invert sugar. Invert sugar is sweeter to the taste than sucrose. The sweet syrup present in canned fruits and candies is largely invert sugar formed from hydrolysis of added sucrose.

• Monosaccharides
• Disaccharides