Introduction

From the latin word fructus meaning fruit, fructose is a sugar found in a variety of fruits. Fructose is chemically, C₆H₁₂O₆. This simply means that fructose is a molecule containing 6 carbon atoms, 12 hydrogen atoms and 6 oxygen atoms. Fructose is referred to as a ketohexose. The term ketohexose simply describes sugars that have a keto group in them, and that are hexoses (sugars with 6 carbon atoms). And since we already said that fructose contains 6 carbons, as we can see in its chemical formula (C₆H₁₂O₆), we can classify fructose as a ketohexose. Knowing these names isn't abundantly important, but does help in understanding the background of classification. Fructose is found in honey, and various fruits. A major source of fructose is the disaccharide sucrose, since sucrose is compused to glucose and fructose. Since the human can utilise fructose as an energy source, we can eat fructose-containing foods for energy. In the hospital setting, frucose (in a specially prepared form) can be given to patients intravenously as an energy source, in cases wherer they cannot tolerate normal food by mouth. Other names for fructose depending on preparation are levulose, fructopyranose and fruit sugar.