What Exactly Is Glucose?

At some stage in your life, you have likely heard the word “glucose” and wondered exactly what it was. Glucose is a form of carbohydrate, and carbohydrates give you energy. People who have tasted glucose say it is sweet, like sugar. Let us say it is a simple sugar.

Where does glucose come from? Glucose does not exist in our bodies; rather our bodies produce it for us. When your body runs short of glucose, you lose energy. To revive the energy, your body must consume carbohydrates from the outside and turn them into glucose which is then absorbed by the body and and—voilà!—you get renewed energy.

The natural form of glucose that I am referring to is actually called by its common industry name, “dextrose.” Commercial glucose is produced from starch. This starch is extracted from crops that are grown for this purpose. The process by which it is extracted from this starch of the crops is called enzymatic hydrolysis. The crops used for this purpose generally are potato, arrowroot, cassava, maize, wheat and rice. The United States is a consumer of corn starch, which is extracted from maize.

The process of enzymatic hydrolysis exclusively involves heating the starch to high temperatures for the enzymes to become deactivated. This is then completely hydrolyzed using glucoamylase. After some more processes, the solution is purified by carrying out filtration and solidified by repeated crystallizations. The process as described above should give you a bare idea as to how glucose is being produced commercially.

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