Cnapter 12 



SUGAR-PRODUCING PLANTS 



To the chemist, sugar may mean any one of a number of 

 carbohydrates forming a sweet solution in water, and producing 

 a colorless solid when crystallized. In everyday life sugar refers 

 to the common sucrose, a particular type of sugar with the chem- 

 ical formula C12H22O11 (cf. p. 130). Other sugars with this same 

 formula are known to exist, but they have a different arrange- 

 ment of atoms within the molecule. Similarly glucose, the first 



Fig. 157. — Distribution of acreage devoted to raising sugar; sorghum in dotted 

 area, circles indicate beet area, and crosses indicate cane areas. 



formed sugar in plants, is only one of several sugars with the gen- 

 eral formula C6H12O6. As shown in Chapter 6, sugars are energy 

 sources for growth and reproduction of plant life; but they are 

 also important energy sources for the many and varied activities 

 that characterize the daily life of man. Glucose can be assimilated 

 by the human body without change, hence is manufactured in 

 large quantities from starches (see Chapter 23) for use in feeding 

 infants and invalids. Sucrose is assimilable with only one chem- 



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