Reducing Sugar Experiment

ANALYSIS

REDUCING SUGARS

From the observations obtained within the experiment, it can be concluded that only whipping cream and corn syrup tested positive for reducing sugars. However, it was hypothesized that in addition to whipping cream and corn syrup, the flour solution would also contain reducing sugars. This did not prove to be accurate as when it was tested with the Benedict 's solution, no evident change was recorded. Further research was conducted in order to determine why certain substances tested positive and the reason why others did not undergo any changes. To begin, during the Benedict 's and heat test, the test tube containing whipping cream underwent a colour change from a white, low viscous liquid to a bright orange hue

Although it was hypothesized that the corn syrup would also contain starch, conducted research helped to clarify why this substance was void of starch. First of all, it was hypothesized that whipping cream would not contain starch, and this was confirmed when drops of an iodine solution was added to the test tube. No evidence of starch was observed, but there was a colour change from a white liquid to a yellow hue that stayed at the bottom of the test tube. However, the whipping cream simply took on the colour of the iodine solution, so there was no change that occurred that could have proved a chemical reaction. The reason why whipping cream does not contain starch is due to the fact that starch is found in plants. Since, cream is not associated with any plants, there is no possibility for starch to exist. Additionally, the nutritional label confirms that there are no sugars present in the whipping cream. Starch is a polysaccharide which is a type of sugar. Therefore, if no sugars are present in the whipping cream, there cannot be any starch as well. Moreover, it was confirmed that soy milk does indeed contain starch. This was also hypothesized as it was assumed that since soybeans are a legume, they would contain starch. The experiment confirmed this result as when the iodine solution was added, the milk turned a dark grey colour at the top of the test tube and when it was mixed, the entire solution became a light grey colour. A blue or black tinted colour is an indicator of starch in a product, so the grey hue that the soybean milk possessed confirmed the hypothesis. Research helped to determine that the type of starch found in soybeans is known as beta-amylase (Stevenson et al., 2006). It is a starch, specified by specific glycosidic linkages, that is commonly found in the stems of plants which would lead to the conclusion that it