Carbohydrates are a major source of energy, and is the most abundant biomolecule found on earth.

Carbohydrates are polyhydroxy aldehydes and ketones, or substances that yield such compounds on hydrolysis. They have the general empirical formula (CH2O) n., However some may have nitrogen, phosphorous or sulphur molecule attached to it. Carbohydrates can be further classified into three categories: Monosaccharides, Disaccharides and Polysaccharides. Monosaccharides are the simplest form of carbohydrates. It is a simple sugar unit and cannot be broken down any further. They are usually a white, water soluble solid. The most common monosaccaride consists of six carbon atoms also referred to as a Hexose sugar. A five carbon monosaccharide is called a pentose sugar. Examples of Hexose and pentoses are Glucose and Fructose respectively, they can also be referred to as aldohexoses and ketohexose. Aldoses have the functional group (-CHO) while Ketoses contain the functional group (C=O). Discharrides contain two monosaccharide groups joined together by glycosidic bonds.Polysaccharides on the other hand; contain many units of monosaccharide linked together. Both of the examples of the compounds given above are being use to carry out test on them in this experiment. The first test was the Molish Test. The test reagent dehydrates pentoses to form furfural and dehydrates hexoses to form 5-hydroxymethyl furfural the furfurals further react with -naphthol present in the test reagent to produce a purple product. The reactions for this test is shown below

The second test to be performed is Benedicts Test. Benedicts Test is used to identify reducing sugars. As stated earlier carbohydrates possess either and aldehyde or ketose functional group which when place in solution have a reducing chemical property. Benedict solution CuSO4 which is blue in clour possesses Copper ions in the oxidation state of Cu2+. If the test substance

positive for a reducing sugar the reaction that take place is the Cu2+ ions will be reduced to cuprous oxide which will be reddish brown in colour and will be reduced to an oxidation state of Cu+ . The reaction for the test is shown below CuSO4
Cu ++ + SO4 --

2 Cu++ + Reducing Sugar (electron donor) Cu+

Cu+

Cu2O (precipitate)

The final color of the solution depends on how much of this precipitate was formed, and therefore the color gives an indication of how much reducing sugar was present. Increasing amounts of reducing sugar Green orange red brown The Third experiment is the Seliwanoffs Test which is more specific to ketoses, namely fructose. Aldoses do not respond to this test. In this test ketoses undergo a dehydration reaction which yield furfural derivatives, which then condenses with orscinol to produce a red colored complex. The reaction is as follows

Test number four is the Modified Barfoeds Test. This test is to distinguish between Monosaccharides and Disaccharides. This test is based on the fact that these carbohydrates posses either an aldehyde or ketone function group in its structure. These groups will reduce the cupric hydroxide to a red colored cuprous oxide. Dissaccharides also react positively with this test but at a very slow rate. Reaction is shown below:

Bials Test is a test specific to pentoses. When pentose is heated with con.HCl, furfural, whichcondenses with orcinolin the prescence of ferric ion to give a blue green colour.

Iodine test is used to test for the presence of Starch in Carohydrates.Amylose and amylopectic are present in starch and is responsible for the reaction that takes place. Amylose is a long straight chain polymer of glucose unit and amylopectic is a complicated branched structure there are responsible for the deep blue black colour in the presence of the iodine reagent.The iodine molecule slips inside of the amylose molecule .Iodine is not very soluble in water, therefore the iodine reagent is made by dissolving iodine in water in the presence of potassium iodide. This makes a linear triiodide ion complex with is soluble. The triiodide ion ion slips into the coil of the starch molecule hence causing an intense blue-black color for a positive reaction When following the changes in some inorganic oxidation reduction reactions, iodine may be used as an indicator to follow the changes of iodide ion and iodine element. Soluble starch solution is added. Only iodine element in the presence of iodide ion will give the characteristic blue black color. Neither iodine element alone nor iodide ions alone will give the color result. I 2 + II3-

Sudan III Test is specifically designed to test for lipids. lipids are NONPOLAR compound Sudan III dye is made with ether as is its solvent substances will NOT dissolve in Sudan III, rather, they will form two distinct layers in a test tube. The oil droplets are stained red with the sudan III dye. Since oil is less dense that water they separate as a red layer on the surface of the test tube. Emulsion Test this is also a test for lipids. As stated lipids are non polar compounds. That is they do not dissolve in water however they do dissolve in organic solvents such as ethanol. Ethanol extracts the lipid from the crushed solid sample. The lipid spontaneously comes out of solution when water is added and is dispersed as (mall droplets throughout the solution of ethanol and water. the hydrophobic portion of the lipid molecules project inwards and excludes the aqueous environment; the hydrophilic portion (-COOH) group faces the aqueous environment.)A layer is

formed at the top as lipids are less dense than water. The droplets diffract light, appearing cloudy white. The final test is protein precipitation; there are several methods that can be used for this experiment. It is more used for the recovery of biomolecules, especially protein molecules. Precipitation is usually induced by addition of a salt or an organic solvent or by changing the pH to alter the nature of the solution.