Subject Pharm 202 – Pharmaceutical Biochemistry

Title Benedict’s Test

Activity No
Introduction Benedict’s test is used to test for simple carbohydrates. The Benedict’s Test
identifies reducing sugars (monosaccharides amd some disaccharides), which have
free ketone or aldehyde functional group. Benedict’s reagent starts out aqua-blue.
As it is heated in the presence of reducing sugars, it turns yellow to orange. The
“hotter” the final color of the reagent, the higher the concentration of reducing
sugar.

Non- reducing sugars do not have an OH group attached to the anomeric carbon so
they cannot reduce other compounds. All monosaccharides such as glucose are
reducing sugars. A disaccharide can be a reducing sugar or a non-reducing sugar.
Maltose and lactose are reducing sugars, while sucrose is a non-reducing sugar.

Objective(s) At the end of the activity, the student should be able to:
1. To distinguish which of the various sample is a reducing sugar and a non-
reducing sugar using a Benedict’s reagent.
Materials and  Glucose Solution
Equipment  Starch Solution
 Test tube holder
 Distilled water
 Benedict’s Solution
 Test tube rack
 Test tubes
 Beaker
 Hot plate
 Droppers
 Graduated cylinder

Prepare all the materials

needed.
Procedure/ Instruction
1. Measure 2 ml of each sample solution
and put it into the labelled test tubes.
2. Using a dropper, add 20 drops of the
Benedict’s reagent into each sample
solutions.
3. After adding, place the sample solution
into the boiling water or hot bath for 3
minutes.
4. Remove the sample solutions from the
boiling water using a test tube holder and place it back into the test
tube rack. 2 ml of distilled water and 2 ml of
Preparing
5. Observe and take note of the color changes of the solutions.
glucose solution in each test tube and 20
dropsAND
DATA of Benedict ’s reagent in each sample.
OBSERVATION

After 3 minutes, the test tubes

were removed and were
placed back into the rack.
Color changes were observed.
Test tube with distilled water,
color doesn’t change while the
solution with glucose solution
changed into orange.

The sample solutions

were dipped into the
boiling water for 3
minutes.

Conclusion
After the experiment, the results showed that the glucose solution color
changes into red to orange indicating there is a presence of carbohydrates
while the color did not change in the distilled water.