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Identifying Carbohydrates

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Identification of Carbohydrates Purpose: To identify carbohydrates and be able to identify an unknown carbohydrate using comparisons. Materials: 30 drops of monosaccharide solution (2) 30 drops of disaccharide solution (2) 30 drops of polysaccharide solution (2) 30 drops of unknown solution #10 (2) test tube (4) hot plate 30 drops of Benedict’s solution (4) 3-5 drops of iodine (4) beaker (for water bath) Procedure: Number test tubes 1-4. Add 30 drops of each saccharide solution (monosaccharide solution in 1, disaccharide solution in 2, polysaccharide solution in 3, unknown solution in 4). Add Benedict’s solution to each test tube. Benedict’s solution is a stain, so be careful not to get it on your clothes and rinse with water and and inform the teacher if it does spill. Heat water bath on medium heat on the hot plate. Heat the 4 test tubes in the water bath for 5 minutes. The beaker, water and test tubes will be very hot after heating, handle them with care. Observe and record any changes in color in all solutions Clean test tubes thoroughly. Repeat Step 1. Add 3-5 drops of iodine to each saccharide solution Do not boil the solutions with the iodine, it will ruin the reaction Iodine is a stain, be careful not to get it on your clothes and rinse …show more content…

When iodine was added to all four solutions, only one reacted and changed color. Only the polysaccharide solution, test tube #3, reacted which was expected. When performing the Benedict’s test, a reaction occurred almost immediately after the test tubes were put into the water bath. Both test tube #1, the monosaccharide solution, and test tube #4, the unknown solution, changed color from blue to a yellow-orange when heated. Since the unknown solution reacted during the Benedict’s Test, used to identify monosaccharides, and not in the Iodine Test, used to identify polysaccharides, that means the unknown solution #10 is a monosaccharide

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