Answer to Question #65556 in Biology for Irshad

Question

2.Monosaccharides are called ' reducing sugars' but disaccharides are not.why?Write an example of each type of sugar.

Answer 1

Answer:
Monosaccharide: tetrose (С4Н8О4)
Disaccharide: sacharose (С12Н22O11).
If a sugar contains aldehyde groups that are oxidised to carboxylic acids, then that sugar is classified as a reducing sugar. It is called a reducing sugar because it reduces the number of chemicals present in its structure through oxidation.
Reducing sugars include glucose, fructose, glyceraldehyde, lactose, arabinose and maltose .
Many disaccharides, like lactose and maltose also have a reducing form. However, sucrose and trehalose, in which the anomeric carbons of the two units are linked together, are non-reducing disaccharides.