Name: Avisha Murally Lab#: 1 Date: 17/09/2019
TITLE: Quantitative Test for Reducing Sugars.
AIM: To compare the amount of reducing sugars present in three different fruits.
APPARATUS AND MATERIALS: 1cm3 Syringes (2), Test Tubes (7), Test Tube Rack, Knife,
Petri Dishes (7), Glass Pencil, Beakers (2), Water Bath, Tomato, Grape, Lime, 5% Glucose
Solution, Benedict’s Solution, Distilled Water, White Sheet of Paper
METHOD:
1. Using a clean syringe 1cm3 of the 5% Glucose Solution was added to 4cm3 of water to
obtain a 1% Glucose Solution.
2. Using a clean syringe 2cm3 of the 1% Glucose Solution was added to 2cm3 of water to
obtain a 0.5% Glucose Solution.
3. Using a clean syringe 2cm3 of the 0.5% Glucose Solution was added to 2cm3 of water to
obtain a 0.25% Glucose Solution.
4. From each of the glucose solutions (5%, 1%, 0.5%, 0.25%), 0.5cm3 was added to a test
tube.
5. Each of the fruits was cut and squeezed into the petri dishes.
6. 0.5cm3 of each of the fruit juices was then also added to separate test tubes.
7. 1cm3 of Benedict’s Solution was added to each of the 7 test tubes with the samples.
8. The test tubes were then put into the water bath for 10 minutes.
9. The test tubes were removed from the water bath and a white sheet of paper was placed
behind them as they were observed and compared.
RESULTS:
TABLE 1 SHOWING THE APPEARANCE OF EACH SAMPLE
SAMPLE OBSERVATION
Lime Clear Green
Grape Yellow (Darker than Tomato)
Tomato Yellow
5% Solution Very Cloudy Red
1% Solution Cloudy Orange
0.5% Solution Slightly Cloudy Red/Brown
0.25% Solution Clear Blue with specks of Red
DISCUSSION:
A reducing sugar is a substance which contains an aldehyde or ketone functional group. This
group allows the sugar to act as a reducing agent. Some reducing sugars are glucose, fructose and
galactose. A test for reducing sugars is the Benedict’s test. Benedict’s solution contains Copper
Sulphate (2) which turns red when reacted with a reducing sugar. Fruits have non-reducing and
reducing sugars.
The 0.25% glucose solution gave a blue colour with a little red. The 0.5% glucose solution gave
a slightly red colour. The 1% glucose solution gave an orange colour. The 5% glucose solution
gave a cloudy red. As the concentration increased the solution became redder and cloudier
showing that more reducing sugar was present.
The lime gave a clear green indicating little reducing sugars. The tomato gave a yellow colour
and the grape gave a darker yellow than the tomato indicating it had the most reducing sugars.
When the Benedict’s solution was added to the solutions containing the reducing sugars the blue
Cu2+ ions reacted with functional group (aldehyde) which reduced it to red Cu+:
Cu2+ + e- Cu+
The excess Benedict’s solution which was added was to ensure that all of the reducing sugar
reacted. The glucose solutions were tested in order to be able to compare the fruit tests to a
reliable standardized amount. The various colour recorded was due to the amount of reducing
sugar and how much of the Benedict’s solution reacted. In the 5% solution, the high
concentration of reducing sugar caused all the Cu2+ ions to be reduced whereas in the 0.25%
solution, the mainly blue colour was due to the unreacted Benedict’s solution.
A precaution taken was making sure that none of the solution was left on the walls of the test
tubes because if any solution was left, then the observations recorded would have been incorrect.
A source of error could have come from checking the colour by eye which could be subjective.
Another was that only reducing sugars was tested for when non-reducing sugars could have been
present. An improvement would be to use a colorimeter instead of checking the colours by eye.
The experiment could have also been repeated for more accurate results.
CONCLUSION:
The lime had the least amount of glucose and the grape had the most. The tomato had more than
the lime but less than the grape. The colour from the grape indicated that it had close to 5% non-
reducing sugar; the tomato had a little less (1%-5%) and the lime had between 0.25 % to 0.5%
