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Home > Articles > Fructose Structure: Definitions, Examples, Physical and Chemical Properties, Uses, Characteristics, Reactions, and Sources
Updated on 21st July, 2023 , 6 min read
The simple ketonic monosaccharide fructose, usually referred to as fruit sugar, is found in a wide variety of plants. It frequently forms the disaccharide sucrose in plants by bonding with glucose. During digestion, it enters straight into the circulation. In the year 1847, a French scientist by the name of Augustin-Pierre Dubrunfaut made the initial discovery of fructose. Later, in 1857, an English scientist by the name of William Allen Miller formally invented the phrase.
Numerous plants, flowers, and fruits contain the straightforward ketonic monosaccharide sugar known as fructose. One of the three dietary monosaccharides—along with glucose and galactose—that are immediately absorbed into the blood after digestion is this fruit sugar. The simplest type of sugar and the fundamental component of carbohydrates are called monosaccharides. Fructose is the simplest sugar and is also the easiest sugar to digest. It is a sweet, white, flavorless, and crystalline substance in its purest form. In comparison to other sugars, it is more water-soluble. It is often found in vegetables like carrot, radish, beetroot, and sugarcane, as well as fruits like mango, litchi, cherry, and guava. It is produced commercially from sugar beets, maize, and cane.
The following table gives the details about the fructose structure-
The following are the properties of fructose structure-
Here are some typical applications for fructose-
Like other simple sugars, fructose has a six-carbon linear chain containing hydroxyl and carbonyl groups that may be used to describe its structure.
In 1857, the Latin term Fructus (fruit) and the chemical suffix -ose, which is a general designation for sugars, were combined to form the word "fructose". Due to its propensity to spin plane polarised light in a laevorotary manner (counterclockwise/to the left) when a beam is shined through it in solution, it is also known as fruit sugar, levulose, or laevulose.
Fructose has a number of important properties, including being white in color when pure and dried, being odorless, tasting sweet, and having a crystalline shape. Of all the numerous kinds of sugars, it is the one that is most water-soluble. Normal sources of fructose sugar include fruits, flowers, trees, honey, berries, and root vegetables.
A polyhydroxy ketone with six carbons is fructose. Due to the durability of its hemiketal and internal hydrogen bonds, crystalline fructose adopts a cyclic six-membered structure known as -d-fructopyranose. The tautomers -d-fructopyranose, -d-fructofuranose, -d-fructopyranose, and keto-d-fructose (the non-cyclic form) coexist in equilibrium as fructose in solution. Temperature and a number of other factors, including the solvent, affect how the d-fructose tautomers are distributed in the solution. It has been determined several times that the distributions of d-fructopyranose and d-fructofuranose in water are around 70% fructopyranose and 22% fructofuranose.
The following is a list of the physical characteristics of fructose molecules-
The following are some of the reactions to fructose structure-
Hydroxymethylfurfural, which fructose rapidly dehydrates into, may then be processed to produce liquid dimethylfuran (C₆H₁₂O₆). Future versions of this technology might function as a low-cost, carbon-neutral system for making plant-based alternatives to gasoline and diesel.
Yeast or bacteria may anaerobically ferment fructose. Sugar (sucrose, glucose, or fructose, but not lactose) is converted by yeast enzymes into ethanol and carbon dioxide.[20] During fermentation, some of the carbon dioxide generated will stay dissolved in the water, where it will eventually come into balance with the carbonic acid. Some fermented drinks, like champagne, get their carbonation from dissolved carbon dioxide and carbonic acid.
Amino acids and fructose engage in a non-enzymatic browning process known as the Maillard reaction. The Maillard reaction's earliest phases happen more quickly with fructose than with glucose because it is more prevalent in the open-chain state. As a result, fructose has the potential to influence how food tastes as well as have other negative nutritional impacts such as excessive browning, decreased volume and softness during cake making, and the creation of mutagenic chemicals.
Honey, fruits, and vegetables (including sugar cane) are all natural sources of fructose. From these sources, fructose is frequently concentrated further. Foods containing white sugar (sucrose), high-fructose corn syrup, agave nectar, honey, molasses, maple syrup, fruit, and fruit juices are the highest dietary sources of fructose in comparison to other common foods and ingredients. These foods also have the highest percentages of fructose (including fructose in sucrose) per serving. Foods can include fructose, either free or linked to glucose as sucrose, a disaccharide. Foods may include fructose, glucose, and sucrose, but the amounts of each of these three sugars will vary from one item to the next.
An intriguing fact is that nectar from flowers, which contains sucrose, is collected by bees. Then, an enzyme is used to hydrolyze, or separate, the sucrose into its glucose and fructose components.
The structure of fructose is cyclic or chair-like. The chair form of fructose is comparable to that of glucose, with a few differences in fructose's structure. Since fructose possesses a ketone functional group, the second carbon position is where the ring closure takes place. In fructose, this causes the production of an intramolecular hemiacetal or the emergence of a 5-membered ring. The carbon is in the second position, and the OH is in the fifth carbon unit. There are four carbons and one oxygen in the five-membered ring. Essentially, two configurations of CH2OH and OH groups are present, together with chiral carbon. Fructose essentially exhibits stereoisomerism.
The hydroxyl group's relocation to the second carbon causes the rings to be further categorized as alpha and beta compounds. Alpha is the name used when the hydroxyl is facing downward. It is beta when it is facing up.
In the commercial world, fructose, a ketohexose monosaccharide, is used as a sweetener. Due to the free carbonyl group at its second carbon, the six-carbon molecule acts as a reducing sugar. Levo-fructose predominates as its primary form. Since fructose is an isomer of glucose, its structure is more comparable to that of glucose. Fructose possesses a functional group called a ketose at its second carbon, except for that. It also varies from aldohexose to glucose, by occasionally creating a five-membered furanose ring. Honey, berries, and vine fruits all contain fructose in their natural forms.
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By - Nikita Parmar 2024-09-06 10:59:22 , 6 min readAns. Fructose is a molecule with a 5-membered ring, whereas glucose is a 6-membered ring. Another significant distinction is that fructose is ketohexose, whereas glucose is aldohexose.
Ans. Fructose is a monosaccharide carbohydrate.
Ans. Honey, sugar, fruit juices, candies, and many other foods contain fructose.
Ans. Fructose is a carbohydrate sugar that is present in nature.
Ans. High fructose intake raises blood sugar levels and increases the risk of heart disease.