Nagavajara, Kanokpon (PLOY)

Rock Candy Lab Introduction

Carbohydrate (saccharide) is a source of energy, which body needs.

Carbohydrates are the most abundant biomolecule on Earth. Living organisms use
carbohydrates as accessible energy to fuel cellular reactions and for structural support inside
cell walls (Dallas Learning Cloud, n.d., para 1). Carbohydrates are used to convert from its
simple form, glucose, into energy in the form that the body could use. Carbohydrates are the
source that are taken to be energy source before other sources, they could be stored in the
body for 1-2 days. If carbohydrates are consumed in the amount that even the liver that has
the function of storing parts of surplus glucose cannot store all of it, the excess would be
stored as fat (Gebel, 2011)
Carbohydrate is classified into monosaccharide, disaccharide, and polysaccharide.
Monosaccharide or the simple sugar is the monomer of carbohydrate. Two monosaccharides
combine to form disaccharide, and many monosaccharides form polysaccharide. The three
forms of monosaccharide are glucose, fructose, and galactose (Royal Society of Chemistry,
2004). Glucose is the building block of carbohydrate, it is important for the process turning
into energy, or respiration. Other carbohydrate forms also have to change into glucose form
for the process of digestion too. Fructose or fruit sugar is found in fruits. Galactose is found
in mammals milk. One monomer of glucose and glucose form a disaccharide called maltose,
maltose is found in grain, barley, and etc. Glucose and galactose form lactose, which is found
in dairy products. Glucose and fructose form sucrose, which is table sugar (sugar canes and
beets). It also could be found in specific kinds of vegetables and fruits. The main types of
polysaccharide are cellulose, pectin, dextrin, starch, and glycogen (IvyRose Holistic Health,
n.d.)
Because of sugar specific structure, it impacts what property it has. In the range of
sweetness, fructose is considered the sweetest of all sugar and lactose is the least. Some
factors that could affect the sweetness is how that particular sugar cooperate with the taste
buds, pH level, temperature, thickness, and concentration (Mehas and Rogers, 2006). Sugar
also have the property of effecting the flavor of the food by giving off aromas when mixed
with certain foods. For example, sugar and protein interactions result in maillard reaction.
Sugar also effect the texture of food too, especially frozen foods (Kitts, 2010). Sugar
produces the soft, smooth, and airy texture of frozen products like ice cream, by preventing
lactose (milk sugar) crystallization and by lowering the freezing point to facilitate the
production of smaller ice crystals (Kitts, 2010, p. 3). Another property of sugar is preserving
food, this property is related to food industries. Because sugar have the property of taking
moisture from its surroundings, it prevents microorganisms to grow in the water, preserving
food (Kitts, 2010). Caramelization is also one of the properties of sugar. This property cause
the browning of sugar when heated (Mehas and Rogers, 2006). As sugar is heated, some of
the water leaves its molecules in the form of hydrogen and oxygen (Mehas and Rogers,
2006, p. 222). High concentration of carbon dioxide is resulted in the heating process and
created the brown color. Each type of sugar has its own temperature that it would caramelize
(Mehas and Rogers, 2006).
 Sugar could easily dissolve in water because they both have hydroxyl groups in their
structures. Each type of sugar also has the different ability to dissolve, how well it dissolves
ordered like the sweetness: fructose is the most soluble and lactose is the least. Temperature
is a factor that effect how much sugar could be in a solution. The higher the heat is, the more
sugar could be dissolved (Mehas and Rogers, 2006). Normally, if the solution is added with
the range of maximum amount of sugar, the extra sugar that added would not dissolve, this
solution is called a saturated solution (Helmenstine, 2016). Adding the heat or increasing
temperature would allow the extra sugar to dissolve, which usually in the normal temperature
it would not, this solution is called a supersaturated solution. Crystal would form in the
supersaturated solution, if that solution reach a specific concentration, tiny crystals would
form. By forming tiny crystals, the other sugar crystals would isolate from the solution and
follow to form bigger crystal (Mehas and Rogers, 2006).
For this experiment, the requirement is to make a rock candy crystal from a
supersaturated solution. We heat up 300 ml of water and slowly dissolve 600 grams of sugar
to form a supersaturated solution. We put a stick that covered in sugar crystals into the
solution, which later on the sugar in the supersaturated solution attach to the previous crystals
to form larger crystals. The purpose of this lab is to understand more about the property of
sugar solubility and crystallization by seeing the process in actions.
References
Royal Society of Chemistry. (2004, November). Carbohydrates. Retrieved from
http://www.rsc.org/Education/Teachers/Resources/cfb/carbohydrates.htm

Dallas Learning Cloud. (n.d.). Biomolecules. Retrieved from https://dlc.dcccd.edu/biology1-

3/carbohydrates

Gebel, E. (2011, March). How the Body Uses Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Fats. Retrieved
from http://www.diabetesforecast.org/2011/mar/how-the-body-uses-carbohydrates-proteins-
and-fats.html?referrer=https://www.google.co.th/

IvyRose Holistic Health. (n.d.). Types of Sugar. Retrieved from

http://www.ivyroses.com/HumanBiology/Nutrition/Types-of-Sugar.php

Kitts, D. D. (2010). Sucrose: From Field to Table. Retrieved from

http://www.sugar.ca/SUGAR/media/Sugar-Main/PDFs/2010-CHOnews_ENG-LR.pdf

Helmenstine, A. M. (2016, July 7). Saturated Solution Definition and Examples. Retrieved
from https://www.thoughtco.com/definition-of-saturated-solution-and-examples-605640

Mehas, K. Y., & Rogers, S. L. (2006). Food Science: The Biochemistry of Food and
Nutrition. Columbus, Ohio: McGraw-Hill companies