What are the properties of a carbohydrate?
Answers
Answer:Physical Properties of Carbohydrates
Stereoisomerism – Compound shaving same structural formula but they differ in spatial configuration. Example: Glucose has two isomers with respect to penultimate carbon atom. They are D-glucose and L-glucose.
Optical Activity – It is the rotation of plane polarized light forming (+) glucose and (-) glucose.
Diastereo isomers – It the configurational changes with regard to C2, C3, or C4 in glucose. Example: Mannose, galactose.
Annomerism – It is the spatial configuration with respect to the first carbon atom in aldoses and second carbon atom in ketoses.
Chemical Properties of Carbohydrates
Osazone formation: Osazone are carbohydrate derivatives when sugars are reacted with excess of phenylhydrazine. eg. Glucosazone
Benedicts test: Reducing sugars when heated in the presence of an alkali get converted to powerful reducing species known as enediols. When Benedict’s reagent solution and reducing sugars are heated together, the solution changes its colour to orange-red/ brick red.
Oxidation: Monosaccharides are reducing sugars if their carbonyl groups oxidize to give carboxylic acids.In the Benedict’s test, D-glucose is oxidized to D-gluconic acid thus, glucose is considered a reducing sugar.
Reduction to alcohols: The C=O groups in open chain forms of carbohydrates can be reduced to alcohols by sodium borohydride, NaBH4, or catalytic hydrogenation (H2, Ni, EtOH/H2O). The products are known as “alditols
Answer:
The simple carbohydrates include single sugars (monosaccharides) and polymers, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides. Simplest group of carbohydrates and often called simple sugars since they cannot be further hydrolyzed. Colorless, crystalline solid which are soluble in water and insoluble in a non-polar solvent.
Explanation: