Lab Report: #1 Identifying Carbohydrates Problem: To determine whether a substance contains reducing sugars and/or polysaccharides (two types of carbohydrates) by using Benedict’s reagent and iodine stain. Background: Carbohydrates are essential to living organisms, and the principal role of carbohydrates is the production of energy. Carbohydrates are groups of sugars that contain carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen in a 1:2:1 ratio. Three main units of carbohydrates are monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides. A monsaccharide contains one sugar …showed first 75 words of 660 total…

…showed last 75 words of 660 total…test showed that the glucose/dextrose and honey solutions contained high concentration levels of reducing sugars; the water and the table sugar solutions contained trace amounts of reducing sugars; the potato, cornstarch, sweet ‘n’ low, equal, gelatin, and egg white solutions did not contained traceable amounts of reducing sugars. The results of the Iodine stain determined that the potato and cornstarch solution contained polysaccharides. All of the other solution showed that polysaccharides were not present.