Chemical Properties Of Glucose

By Author: Pierce Brosnan
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Introduction to Chemical properties of glucose

Chemical properties of glucose- Structure of Glucose

The important chemical properties of glucose as follows

Hexoses represent the physiologically important sugars. Glucose a hexose is present in blood in significant concentration. We shall devote maximum attention to understand chemistry and structures of glucose and study its relationship to other physiological compounds. The structure of glucose was worked out ever since its empirical formula was proved in 1886; Kiliani demonstrated that glucose is a straight chain polyhydroxylic aldehyde. Ten years later, Emil Fisher succeeded in assigning the spatial relationship of the carbon atoms in the glucose molecule and proved that certain carbon atoms in glucose molecules are asymmetric.

Glucose is a monosaccharide. It is a hexose and has six carbon atoms. It contains an aldehyde group and therefore it is an aldose. Its molecular formula is C6H12O6. It has five hydroxyl groups. The structural formula of glucose is as follows:

Chemical Properties of Glucose- Production of Glucose

Natural way ...
... of production:

1. Glucose is one of the yields of photosynthesis in plants and some prokaryotes.

2. In animals and fungi, glucose is the consequence of the breakdown of glycogen, a process known as glycogenolysis. In plants - the breakdown substrate is starch.

3. In animals, glucose is biosynthesized in the liver or kidneys from non-carbohydrate intermediates, such as pyruvate and glycerol, by a process known as gluconeogenesis.

Chemical Properties of Glucose- Commercial Production

Chemical properties of glucose:

Glucose is produced commercially from starch is a polymer of alpha glucose. It is a major fuel store in plants, but is absent from animals where the equivalent is glycogen. It can easily be converted back to glucose for use in respiration. In germinating seeds the glucose may also be used to make cellulose and other materials needed for growth.

Chemical properties of glucose- cellulose:

Cellulose is a polymer of beta glucose. Unlike starch and glycogen it has a structural role. When two molecules of beta glucose line up, the hydroxyl group on carbon atom 1 can only line up alongside the OH group on carbon atom 4 if one of the molecules is rotated at 180 degree to the other.

About 50% of carbon found in plants is in cellulose and is most abundant organic molecule on earth. It is virtually confined to plants, although it is found in some nonvertebrate animals and ancestral fungi.

Cellulose is an important food source for some animals, bacteria and fungi. The enzyme cellulose, which catalyses the digestion of cellulose to glucose. Commercially cellulose is extremely important. It is used, for example to make cotton goods and is a constituent of paper and sellotape.

Chemical properties of glucose- Disaccharides:

They are formed when two monosaccharide, usually Hexoses, combine by means of a chemical reaction known as condensation. The most ordinary disaccharides are as follows

Maltose
Lactose and
Sucrose.
Maltose: It occurs mainly as a breakdown product during digestion of starch by enzymes called amylases. Barley grain is used as the source of starch. This involves conversion of maltose to glucose by the enzyme maltase it occurs during digestion in animals.

Lactose: Or milk sugar is found extensively in milk and is important energy source for young mammals. It can only be digested slowly, so gives s low steady release of energy.

Sucrose: Or cane sugar is the most abundant disaccharide in nature. It is most commonly found in plants, where it is transported in large quantities through phloem tissue. It is obtained commercially from sugar cane and sugar bee.

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