Invert Sugar

[Ducatiboy stu]

Well I had a chat to a sugar chemist at Harwood Sugar Mill about invert sugar...

Invert sugar is Glucose....

Table sugar is Sucrose...

You make glucose by applying heat to Sucrose

The acid that people make reference to ( Citric, Cream of tartar etc ) is only a catalyst for the reaction, and is neutralised after the process.

The acid does not make Invert Sugar...it helps speed up the process when the sucrose is heated....

 

[MHB]

Another invert thread

I think you might have misunderstood the chemist - just a bit.

Sucrose is a disaccharide; that means it is made up of 2 simpler sugars, in the case of Sucrose they are Glucose and Fructose.

When a sugar is inverted, the bond is broken and a water molecule is attached where the junction used to be:-
Sucrose (Glucose-Fructose) becomes Glucose mono hydrate and Fructose mono hydrate.
Maltose (Glucose-Glucose) would give 2 Glucose mono hydrate
Lactose (Glucose-Galactose) would give Glucose mono hydrate and Galactose mono hydrate
So on for any sugar

There are lots of methods for achieving this, they all require water to be present, but heat, heat in conjunction with a catalyst or an enzyme the outcome should be the same.

But there aint no way Sucrose becomes 2 glucose.

MHB

 

[rich_4646]

Is is possible to use Tartaric rather than Citric and at what concentration?

Another invert thread

I think you might have misunderstood the chemist - just a bit.

Sucrose is a disaccharide; that means it is made up of 2 simpler sugars, in the case of Sucrose they are Glucose and Fructose.

When a sugar is inverted, the bond is broken and a water molecule is attached where the junction used to be:-
Sucrose (Glucose-Fructose) becomes Glucose mono hydrate and Fructose mono hydrate.
Maltose (Glucose-Glucose) would give 2 Glucose mono hydrate
Lactose (Glucose-Galactose) would give Glucose mono hydrate and Galactose mono hydrate
So on for any sugar

There are lots of methods for achieving this, they all require water to be present, but heat, heat in conjunction with a catalyst or an enzyme the outcome should be the same.

But there aint no way Sucrose becomes 2 glucose.

MHB

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

MHB...I didnt know that you where a chemist

When I asked about making Invert Sugar at home, I was greeted with a "ummm...not really" look....and "it is a bit more complicated than that...", but as the chemist here on AHB, you would already know that

Obviously the refinery does not put the sugar in a pot of water on the stove with a few spoons of citric acid....

 

[MHB]

rich_4646 Posted Mar 4 2008, 12:47 PM
Is is possible to use Tartaric rather than Citric and at what concentration?

I have been thinking about this - you know one of those niggling in the back if the brain - sort of on the tip of your tongue - but you can't quite get it to come out type of things.

Something to do with one of the ways Dextrose (Dexter Rotated Glucose Monohydrate) is manufactured from starch.

Ok there are 2 optical isomers of Glucose; most of the glucose in solution is in a form that bends polarised light to the right (Dexter from Dexterous or right hand, symbol d), the rest is a form that bends light to the left (Levoro (spelling?) or left handed, symbol l).

In the industrial process there is lots of Glucose and lots of other saccharides that they want to separate.

I have a hunch one of the ways they do this is to add Tartaric Acid, the d-Glucose forms an insoluble salt and is then filtered out - thats why we have Dextrose or d-Glucose rather than dl-Glucose - the l form and all the other sugars stay behind and get made into Maltodextrin.

Mind you last time I studied chemistry seriously was in the early 90's and you loose the bits you arent using; it might not make any difference; but some of the sugar you have carefully inverted might sink to the bottom.

So any way; maybe Tartaric Acid wouldnt be my first choice

MHB