Which one of the following is a non-reducing carbohydrate?

Which one of the following is a non-reducing carbohydrate?
  1. Maltose
  2. Sucrose
  3. Lactose
  4. Ribose 5-phosphate

Solution

A reducing sugar is any sugar that is capable of acting as a reducing agent because it has a free aldehyde group or a free ketone group. All monosaccharides are reducing sugars, along with some disaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides. The monosaccharides can be divided into two groups: the aldoses, which have an aldehyde group, and the ketoses, which have a ketone group. Ketoses must first tautomerize to aldoses before they can act as reducing sugars. The common dietary monosaccharides are galactose, glucose and fructose are all reducing sugars. Sucrose is a disaccharide. It is composed of each one of the glucose and fructose molecules joined together by α-1,2 glycosidic bond. It is an example of non-reducing sugars.

Asked in: NEET 2014

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