☞ Sucrose proper is a dextrorotatory carbohydrate, . It does not reduce Fehling’s solution, and though not directly fermentable, yet on standing with yeast it is changed by the diastase present to invert sugar (dextrose and levulose), which then breaks down to alcohol and carbon dioxide. It is also decomposed to invert sugar by heating with acids, whence it is also called a . Sucrose possesses at once the properties of an alcohol and a ketone, and also forms compounds (called sucrates) analogous to salts. Cf.

Sugar

.