Glucose Essay-What Is It

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Glucose Essay-What Is It

Glucose_



Glucose is one of the most common carbohydrates and classified as a monosaccharide, an aldose, a hexose, and is a reducing sugar. It is used to circulate blood throughout the body. Glucose is also a major factor in giving the body energy and is the basic chemical unit of nearly even more complex. The formula C6H12O6 is glucose, were there are six carbon molecules and six water molecules attach.

Glucose is found in most saps of trees, most fruits and fruit juices. Glucose is the most common sugars. It is also knows as dextrose or grape sugar. Glucose makes up the rubbery part of plants. Starch and glycogen are polymers of glucose. In humans and animals, glucose is needed to give energy for muscles and other processes of the body needed to use energy. Men and women get glucose from starch, glycogen, sucrose, and lactose, and then they are broken down to enzymes for our body to use. Too much glucose will be stored as fat in fatty tissues. One mole or 180 grams of glucose is about 686, 000 calories of energy, and half of those calories will be used for normal functioning that requires energy in a human's body.

Glucose can be found in candy as well as other food with sugars. Glucose is used as a preservative because the high concentration of the sugar can slow down the growth of bacteria. When it is used for commercial use, Glucose is prepared by the hydrolysis of cornstarch with hydrochloric acid.

Glucose may occur in either two forms: there is a straight-chain form and a ring structure. The repeating process of glucose is made when the aldehyde group of carbon-1 reacts with the hydroxyl group of carbon-5. Because the structure is asymmetric, two different spatial arrangements of the molecule are possible.

The hydroxyl group at carbon-1 can react with hydroxyl group of another compound, by getting rid of water to form an atmosphere linkage. The compound turns out to be glucoside. If the hydroxyl...

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  • Submitted by: alexanderhook
  • Date Submitted: 05/24/2008 04:29 PM
  • Category: Science
  • Words: 648
  • Pages: 3
  • Views: 283
  • Popularity Rank: 5433

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