Dextrose equivalent (DE) is a measure of the amount of reducing sugars present in a

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

product, expressed as a percentage on a

dry basis Dry basis (also d.b., dry matter basis, DM) is an expression of a calculation in chemistry, chemical engineering and related subjects, in which the presence of water (H2O) (and/or other solvents) is neglected for the purposes of the calculation. Wat ...

relative to

dextrose Glucose is a sugar with the molecular formula , which is often abbreviated as Glc. It is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. It is mainly made by plants and most algae during photosynthesis from water an ...

. The dextrose equivalent gives an indication of the average degree of polymerisation (DP) for starch sugars. As a rule of thumb, DE × DP = 120. In all

glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecular formula , which is often abbreviated as Glc. It is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. It is mainly made by plants and most algae d ...

polymers A polymer () is a substance or material that consists of very large molecules, or macromolecules, that are constituted by many repeating subunits derived from one or more species of monomers. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, b ...

, from the native

starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diet ...

glucose syrup Glucose syrup, also known as confectioner's glucose, is a syrup made from the hydrolysis of starch. Glucose is a sugar. Maize (corn) is commonly used as the source of the starch in the US, in which case the syrup is called "corn syrup", but gluco ...

, the molecular chain ends with a reducing sugar, containing a free

aldehyde In organic chemistry, an aldehyde () (lat. ''al''cohol ''dehyd''rogenatum, dehydrogenated alcohol) is an organic compound containing a functional group with the structure . The functional group itself (without the "R" side chain) can be referred ...

in its linear form. As the starch is hydrolysed, the molecules become shorter and more reducing sugars are present. Therefore, the dextrose equivalent describes the degree of conversion of

. The standard method of determining the dextrose equivalent is the Lane-Eynon titration, based on the reduction of

copper(II) sulfate Copper(II) sulfate is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It forms hydrates , where ''n'' can range from 1 to 7. The pentahydrate (''n'' = 5), a bright blue crystal, is the most commonly encountered hydrate of copper(II) sulfate, whi ...

in an alkaline tartrate solution, an application of Fehling's test. Examples: *A

maltodextrin Maltodextrin is a name shared by two different families of chemicals. Both families are glucose polymers (also called ''dextrose polymers'' or ''Dextrin, dextrins''), but have little chemical or nutritional similarity. The digestible maltodextr ...

with a DE of 10 would have 10% of the reducing power of dextrose which has a DE of 100. *

Maltose } Maltose ( or ), also known as maltobiose or malt sugar, is a disaccharide formed from two units of glucose joined with an α(1→4) bond. In the isomer isomaltose, the two glucose molecules are joined with an α(1→6) bond. Maltose is the tw ...

, a

disaccharide A disaccharide (also called a double sugar or ''biose'') is the sugar formed when two monosaccharides are joined by glycosidic linkage. Like monosaccharides, disaccharides are simple sugars soluble in water. Three common examples are sucrose, ...

made of two glucose (dextrose) molecules, has a DE of 52, correcting for the water loss in molecular weight when the two molecules are combined. Glucose (dextrose) has a molecular mass of 180, while water has a molecular mass of 18. For each 2 glucose monomers binding, a water molecule is removed. Therefore, the molecular mass of a glucose polymer can be calculated by using the formula (180*n - 18*(n-1)) with n the DP (degree of polymerisation) of the glucose polymer. The DE can be calculated as 100*(180 / Molecular mass( glucose polymer)). In this example the DE is calculated as 100*(180/(180*2-18*1)) = 52. *

Sucrose Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula . For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refined ...

actually has a DE of zero even though it is a

, because both reducing groups of the monosaccharides that make it are connected, so there are no remaining reducing groups. Because different reducing sugars (e.g.

fructose Fructose (), or fruit sugar, is a Ketose, ketonic monosaccharide, simple sugar found in many plants, where it is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose. It is one of the three dietary monosaccharides, along with glucose and gal ...

and

) have different sweetness, it is incorrect to assume that there is any direct relationship between dextrose equivalent and sweetness.

References

Starch Food science Units of chemical measurement {{chem-stub