Abstract

The reducing and non reducing sugars in sugarcane juice and their changes in relation to maturity (9th to 13th month after planting) were analysed using HPLC in the popular sugarcane variety Co 86032. In CO 86032 sugarcane juice, no peaks of maltose, xylulose were detected while glucose, fructose and sucrose peaks were seen at 4.11, 3.76 and 4.79 retention times using individual sugar as standard. Maximum sucrose accumulation of 228.58 mg/g of dry weight occurred at 10th month after planting (MAP); after which the stored sucrose concentration reduced to 62.08% at 13 month after planting. With maturity, the activity of sucrose synthesizing enzymes, cell wall invertase, neutral invertase decreased while, the acid invertase activity was found to increase. Comparing the two reducing sugars in CO 86032 juice samples, fructose concentration was increasing till 10th month after planting and after which glucose concentration started increasing. At the time of maturity the cane juice tasted sweeter due to the high content of sucrose and fructose contents as fructose has relatively 1.73 times higher sweetness to sucrose.

Keywords: Sugarcane, Sucrose, Glucose, Fructose, Co 86032 and HPLC