Hydrolysis of sucrose yields fructose and glucose. Which of the following best describes the products of sucrose hydrolysis?

• A. Glucose
• B. Galactose and glucose
• C. Maltose and glucose
• D. Fructose and glucose

Answer: (D)

Hydrolysis of disaccharides cleaves the glycosidic bond to release the two constituent monosaccharides. Sucrose is composed of glucose linked to fructose via an α-1,2 glycosidic bond between their anomeric carbons, which makes it a nonreducing sugar. Breaking that bond yields one molecule of glucose and one molecule of fructose for every molecule of sucrose, so the products are glucose and fructose. This can occur with enzymes like sucrase or by acid hydrolysis, and the resulting mixture is often called invert sugar due to the change in optical rotation from the two different monosaccharides. Other disaccharides would give different monosaccharides (for example, lactose yields glucose and galactose, maltose yields two glucose), so only glucose and fructose fit sucrose hydrolysis.