Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 2

Experiment: Analysis of Sugars in Soft Drinks

Aim: To investigate a new range of Pepsi Cola drinks: “Pepsi Mix”, “Pepsi Max”, “Pepsi Mox”.
Your task is to find out which sugar is used in each drink.

Introduction
You are working as a biochemist for a rival soft drinks company
and you need to find out which sugars are used in the new
recipies for three Pepsi products.

You have aquired samples of the drinks and one of your


colleagues has decolourised the samples.

You have to test the sugars.

Hypothesis
The sugar could be glucose (a monosaccharide found in all cells), maltose (a disaccharide extracted
from seeds), sucrose (disaccharide, the sugar found in plant stems and cane sugar) or starch (a
polysaccharide found in plants). Two simple food tests can be used to find out. Benedict's Reagent
to test for glucose (reducing sugars) and Iodine to test for starch.

Information about reducing sugars and Benedict’s Reagent


Benedict's reagent tests for reducing sugars. Glucose and Maltose are reducing sugars. Glucose is the
best reducing sugar because every ring has a "reducing group". Maltose is not as much a reducing
sugar as glucose. It is a disaccharide made from two glucose molecules but it has used up one
reducing group to join the two glucose molecules. It does change the Benedict's solution but more
slowly than glucose.

Timing the colour change will show the


Note: The structure of some carbohydrates:
difference between Glucose and
Maltose, so long as other variables are
controlled: volume of Benedict's
solution, Volume of Sugar Solution,
Temperature of water bath.

Sucrose usually causes no change to


any of the indicators. (Occasionally
Benedict's reagent turns green,
perhaps because of
impurities.) Sucrose has no reducing
group available.

© David Faure, InThinking www.biology-inthinking.co.uk


1
Experiment: Analysis of Sugars in Soft Drinks

Starch has no effect on Benedict's reagent because all the reducing groups are used to hold the chain
of glucose molecules together. It does change the colour of iodine. None of the other carbohydrates
cause the iodine to change colour from brown to "blue-black".

Apparatus
Each group of students will need the following apparatus:
Safety
 Dropping pipettes Wear eye protection
 Measuring cylinder
 Benedict's Reagent (dropping bottle) Tie back long hair
 Iodine Solution (dropping bottle)
 Water bath set to 80°C
 Stopwatch
 Dilute solutions of sucrose, glucose, starch, maltose (for testing)
 Sample of Pepsi MIX, 100ml
 Sample of Pepsi MAX 100ml
 Sample of Pepsi MOX 100ml
(see teacher’s notes for “Pepsi” recipes)

Method A: Test the sample Sugars with Benedict's Solution


1. Label 4 test tubes with the names of each sugar.
2. Put 5ml of each sugar into the correct test tube
3. Add 10 drops of Benedict's solution to each sugar
4. Put the test tubes into a water bath and start a stop watch.
5. Record the colour of the Benedict's solution at regular intervals (you choose) for 5 minutes.

Method B: Test the Pepsi Drinks with Benedict’s & Iodine


1. Test all of the "Pepsi" drinks with the Benedict's reagent and Iodine.
2. Remember with Benedict's Reagent you have to put the test solution in a hot water bath for
a few minutes. You will need to time this change. The iodine does not need heating.
3. Record your results in a table of your own design.

Conclusion & Evaluation


What do you think is the sugar used in each of the Pepsi drink samples?

Compare the drink samples with the sugar samples. Explain any similarities and differences.

Describe any limitations to the experiments

Suggest improvements for each limitation.

© David Faure, InThinking www.biology-inthinking.co.uk


2

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi