Sugar, starch or cellulose?

What sort of carbohydrates do plants make?

Technical & Teaching Notes

Introduction

This resource tackles the learning objective ‘“Carbohydrates can be found in a range of
plant organs”. This is activity 4 in the ‘Photosynthesis: A Survival Guide’ scheme,
and follows on from Activity 3, ‘Let’s talk about carbohydrates’, in which students
learn about the range of carbohydrates that plants produce.

Pupils can test a variety of plant products for different sorts of carbohydrates, including
glucose, starch and cellulose. These plant products can be fresh fruit and
vegetables, but it is also interesting to test materials such as cotton wool and egg
boxes, which contain a high proportion of cellulose.

This is another good opportunity to get students engaged in practical work related to
photosynthesis and will stretch their understanding of the carbohydrates involved
beyond the simple standard equation given at KS3 that photosynthesis results in
glucose.

This resource is designed for 11-14 pupils but could be extended for use with older
students as appropriate.

Safety

• Water bath at 85 – 90°C

• Use of scalpel / knife
• Schulze’s solution should be made up fresh, contained in a small stoppered bottle
and administered only by the teacher. Label the bottle CORROSIVE

Teaching notes

Learning Objective

“Carbohydrates can be found in a range of plant organs”

Suggested approaches

Pupils can test a variety of plant products for glucose, starch and cellulose. It is useful for
pupils to think about where in the plant the sample is taken from, once again
asking the question: “Where do the atoms in the starch, sugars and cellulose
come from?”

Plants which give interesting results include onion, apple, pear, celery, potato and grapes.

Photos showing some expected results are given in the accompanying Powerpoint.
Science & Plants for Schools: www.saps.org.uk
Sugar, starch or cellulose : p. 1

This document may be photocopied for educational use. Revised 2012.

It is also interesting to test materials such as cotton wool, paper towel, egg boxes and
other materials made from recycled paper. These show up clearly the high
proportion of cellulose fibres.

Benedict’s reagent will not give a coloured product with all simple sugars. All
monosaccharide sugars such as glucose, fructose, and galactose will give a
positive result as well as some disaccharide sugars such as maltose and lactose.
Sucrose will not give a positive result with Benedict’s reagent.

Apparatus

Equipment and materials required for each working group:

• White tile
• Knife/scalpel

• 5–6 boiling tubes – one for each type of food

• Small pestle and mortar

• Small bottle of Benedict’s solution

• Small bottle of iodine solution

• Paper towels

Equipment and materials required centrally

• Access to water bath set at 85 – 90°C

• Food samples containing carbohydrate stores e.g. onion, apple, pear, celery,
potato, grapes.

• Optional extras: cotton wool, paper towels, egg boxes, flour, rice, powdered
glucose.

• Buckets/plastic containers for food remains

• 1 bottle of Schulze’s solution (to be administered by the teacher)

Preparation of materials

To make the solutions, see guides such as the CLEAPPS recipe book (in England and
Wales).

 Benedict’s qualitative reagent – CLEAPSS recipe book No 11

 Iodine solution – CLEAPSS recipe card No 50

 Schulze’s solution – CLEAPSS recipe book No 93, ‘Stains for Plant Material’

Ideally the samples for testing should be chopped into small pieces about 1 cm 3 maximum
so that students can easily select three pieces to carry out their tests.

Science & Plants for Schools: www.saps.org.uk

Sugar, starch or cellulose : p. 2

This document may be photocopied for educational use. Revised 2012.

Disposal of materials: In the laboratory have one or two large plastic containers in which
students place their waste so that sinks do not get blocked.

Suppliers: All regular scientific suppliers provide chemicals needed for preparation of
solutions.

Acknowledgements

This resource is based on an original by Debbie Eldridge in ‘Photosynthesis: A Survival

Guide’ (2009).

Science & Plants for Schools: www.saps.org.uk

Sugar, starch or cellulose : p. 3

This document may be photocopied for educational use. Revised 2012.