CHEMISTRY

INVESTIGATORY
PROJECT

COMPARISION OF GLUCOSE IN
VARIOUS FRUITS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would to like to express my special thanks of gratitude to
my teacher Shri. K Srinivasulu Sir as well as our principal Shri.

P.S.Raju Sir who gave me the golden opportunity to do this

wonderful project on the topic Comparision of Glucose in
various Fruits, which also helped me in doing a lot of Research
and I came to know about so many new things.I am really
thankful to them.

Secondly I would also like to thank my parents and friends who

helped me as lot in finishing this project within the limited time.

THANKS AGAIN TO ONE AND ALL OF YOU

CERTIFICA
TE
It is to certify that the project entitled Comparision
of Glucose in various Fruits being submitted by Chetan
Singh of CLASS XII (Science), Kendriya Vidyalaya
Gachibowli in the academic year 2015-2016 is a
bonafide piece of work carried out with the consultation
of the Supervisor.

SIGN. OF EXTERNAL
EXAMINER
TEACHER

SIGN. OF

SIGN. OF PRINCIPAL

INDEX PAGE
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

INTRODUCTION
THEORY
EXECUTION OF PROJECT
OBSERVATIONS
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION
In general, fresh fruits are healthy, nutritious foods that are good sources of
vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and fiber. Further, they are instrumental in
maintaining a net alkaline-yielding diet. Olives, dates, figs, and grapes were some
of the first fruits to be domesticated, and pits from these fruits initially appear in
the archeological record about 6,000 years ago in the Near East. However, the
common fruits we eat today bear little resemblance to their wild ancestors.
Domesticated fruits are almost always larger, sweeter, and contain less fiber than
their wild counterparts. Compare a Golden Delicious apple to a crab apple and you
begin to get the picture.
Dr. Cordains original recommendation to eat fresh fruits as your appetite dictates
still holds for most people. However, if you are very much overweight or are
insulin resistant, he recommends that you initially limit high sugar fruits (grapes,
bananas, mangos, sweet cherries, apples, pineapples, pears and kiwi fruit) from
your diet until your weight starts to normalize and your health improves. Try to
include more vegetables in lieu of the high-sugar fruit. As per his previous
recommendations, dried fruits contain excessive sugar, and from the table below,
you can see they more closely resemble commercial candy than their fresh
counterparts. Note that some fruits (avocados, lemons, and limes) are very low in
total sugar and should not be restricted.
Glucose:
Glucose is a very important monosaccharide in biology. It is one of the major
products of photosynthesis. The living cell uses it as a source of energy and
metabolic intermediate. The name "Gluc" comes from the Greek word "glykys",
which means "sweet", plus the suffix "-ose" which denotes a sugar.
Two stereoisomers of the aldohexose sugars are known as glucose, only one of
which (D-glucose) is biologically active. This form (D-glucose) is often referred to
as dextrose monohydrate, or, especially in the food industry, simply dextrose (from
dextrorotatory glucose).

Structure of Glucose:
D or L Designation:
For the structure of carbohydrates the bonding pattern of the hydrogen and
hydroxyl groups around each carbon atom is very important. An asymmetric
carbon atom is that a carbon atom which is bonded to four different groups.
Glucose, with six carbon atoms, has four asymmetric carbon atoms. The
arrangement of the OH's and H's on these atoms is very important. Structural
formulas for sugar molecules are often written in the vertical arrangement with the
aldehyde or the ketone group at or near the top. When written in this particular
way, the position of the OH on the last asymmetric carbon atom will tell us
whether we are dealing with a "D" sugar or an "L" sugar. "D" stands for dextro and
"L" stands for levo. If the OH is on the right, it is a "D" sugar, in this case Dglucose. If the OH is on the left, then it has been "L" sugars. When you see D's and
L's in front of the names of carbohydrates, this is the reason for it.

THEORY
Fehling's solution:

Use of Fehling's solution:

Fehling's test can be used as a generic test for monosaccharides. It will give a
positive result for aldose monosaccharides (due to the oxidisable aldehyde group)
but also for ketose monosaccharides, as they are converted to aldose by the base in
the reagent, and then give a positive result. For this reason, Fehling's reagent is
sometimes referred to as a general test for monosaccharides.

Fehling's can be used to screen for glucose in urine, thus detecting diabetes.
Another use is in conversion / breakdown of starch to glucose syrup and
maltodextrins, to measure the amount of reducing sugars and calculating the
dextrose equivalent (DE) of the starch sugar.

Theory of Estimation of Glucose:

A freshly prepared Fehlings solution is first standardized by titration against a

standard solution of pure glucose A.R. The standardized Fehlings solution is then
used to determine the amount of glucose in an unknown sample or solution by
direct titration.
The Fehlings solution being a solution of cupric ions is blue in colour and at the
end point changes to red colour precipitate of cuprous oxide. As the supernatant
liquid is blue and the precipitate is red in colour, there may be some difficulty in
determination of end point accurately. Hence sometimes a methylene-blue
indicator is employed for accurate determination of the end point.

C6H12O6

2CuO

C6H11O5.COOH

Cu2O

Glucose

Cupric Oxide

Gluconic Acid

Cuprous oxide

(Fehlings solution)

EXECUTION OF
PROJECT
Materials:
(1)

Hydrometer

a. Travel-sized Eyedrops Container

b.

Nail

(2) Ruler
(3) 200 ml Beaker
(4) Cup (170 ml at its highest marking)
(5) Universal pH Indicator Paper
(6) Juicer
(7) Celery juice
(8) Orange juice
(9) Red watermelon juice
(11) Dragonfruit juice
(12) Peach juice

Procedure
The variables for our investigation are as follows:
Independent variable: Sugar content in fruits/Bx
Dependent variable: pH of fruits
Controlled variables:
(1) Amount of fruit juice (170 ml)
(2)

Environmental conditions

(3)

Cup used

(4) Type of Universal pH Indicator Paper

(5)

Hydrometer used

A. To construct the hydrometer

(1)

Twist open the cap of the travel-sized eyedrops container.

(2)

Squeeze the eyedrops container to dispose of all its contents.

(3)

Drive a nail into the opening.

B. To calibrate the hydrometer

(4)

Use the 200 ml measuring beaker to measure 200 ml of tap water.

(5)

Fill the cup with 170 ml of the water, to the highest marking.

(6)

Measure the height of the water level in the cup.

(7)

Place the hydrometer in the water.

(8)

Measure the height of the hydrometer above the water level/cm.

(9) Pour the tap water back into the 200 ml measuring beaker and add sugar to
make a sugar solution.
(10) Repeat Steps 5, 7-9 for 5% sugar solution, 10% sugar solution, 15% sugar
solution and 30% sugar solution thrice.

C. To obtain the juice

(11) Blend the peaches in the juicer so as to obtain 170 ml of peach juice, to fill
the cup to the highest marking.

D. To measure the sugar content of the fruit juices

(12)

Place the hydrometer in the fruit juices.

(13)

Measure the height of the hydrometer above the water level/cm.

(14) Compare the result of Step 13 with the pre-obtained values for each sugar
solution in Part (B) to estimate the sugar content of the fruit juices/Bx.

E. To measure the pH of the fruit juices

(15) Immerse a strip of Universal pH Indicator Paper into the fruit juice for 1-2
seconds.
(16)

Shake off excess liquid.

(17) Compare the colour produced with the colour chart within 3-5 seconds by
holding it against the nearest matching colour.
(18)

Repeat steps 12 to 17 three times.

(19)

Obtain the average of the results.

(20)

Repeat steps 11 to 19 for the other fruits and the control, tap water, thrice.

OBSERVATIONS AND
CALCULATIONS

Analysis of results
Tabulate the results.
Plot a graph of the sugar content and the pH of the fruits.
Analyse the graph and determine the relationship between the sugar content and
the pH of the fruits.

Results Analysis

CONCLUSION

From our experiment results, we were able to conclude that generally, the higher
the sugar content of the fruit juice, the lower of the pH of the fruit juice. Celery
juice which had the lowest sugar content of 0.0 degrees Bx had the highest pH of
6. Similarly, yellow watermelon juice which had an average sugar content of 2.5
degrees Bx had an average pH of 5. Red watermelon juice, dragonfruit juice, peach
juice and apple juice, which all had the highest sugar content of 10.0 degrees Bx,
all had a pH of 3 to 5, comprising the lower pH readings in the experiment.
However, there was one exception to our trend present in our experiment results,
namely oranges. They had a low pH and low sugar content at the same time.
Two potential questions for future research that arose during the experiment were,
firstly, what other factors affect the pH of fruit juice, and secondly, what factors
affect the sugar content of fruit juice.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://hforhealthyfruits.wordpress.com/

 http://www.lumcon.edu/education/studentdatabase/hydrometer.asp
http://courses.chem.indiana.edu/c121/documents/Howmuchsugaris
inSoftDrinksandFruitJ
www.telegraph.co.uk News Health Health News

www.diabetesforecast.org/2014/07-jul/should-i-drink-fruitjuice.htm