[PDF] hydrolysis of disaccharides

Can a disaccharide be hydrolyzed?

The human body is unable to metabolize maltose or any other disaccharide directly from the diet because the molecules are too large to pass through the cell membranes of the intestinal wall. Therefore, an ingested disaccharide must first be broken down by hydrolysis into its two constituent monosaccharide units.

What does the body do with disaccharides?

Disaccharides such as lactose need some digestion to break them down to two 1-sugar units to facilitate absorption. When lactose is consumed in the human body, it is broken down into galactose and glucose by the lactase enzyme. These small sugars are then absorbed into the bloodstream from where they are absorbed by body cells to be used as energy.

Which disaccharides are reducing?

reducing disaccharides, in which one monosaccharide, the reducing sugar of the pair, still has a free hemiacetal unit that can perform as a reducing aldehyde group; lactose, maltose and cellobiose are examples of reducing disaccharides, each with one hemiacetal unit, the other occupied by the glycosidic bond, which prevents it from acting as a …

What happens during a hydrolysis reaction?

Hydrolysis reactions can be the reverse of a condensation reaction in which two molecules join into a larger one and eject a water molecule. Thus hydrolysis adds water to break down, whereas condensation builds up by removing water.