Sugar and Cellulose

Glucose

     Glucose is a major component of sugar, which is formally called sucrose. The glucose molecule is relatively small, containing six carbon atoms, six oxygen, and twelve hydrogen atoms. Sugarcane is thought to have originated in the South Pacific or southern India. It was used in medicine to enhance taste, bind drugs, and even as a medicine itself. Sugar became readily available in Europe in the fifteenth century, but at a high cost. Within a century, sugar became the most preferred sweetener, and it eventually became used for preservation- jams, jellies, and marmalades became common. In the 1790s, sugar became a staple food in chocolate, tea, coffee, and sweet treats. The world's sugar production increased by 700 percent from 1900 to 1964.
     Sugar played a huge role in shaping the world we live in today. It sparked the start of the slave trade, and profit from the sugar trade caused economic growth in Europe. When explorers in the New World began cultivating sugar, there was an increased demand for workers. They looked toward Africa to supply these workers, entering America into the slave trade. There were other industries that relied on slaves, but sugar was the major one. It has been estimated that two-thirds of African slaves worked on sugar plantations.
     Glucose is a simple sugar, or monosaccharide, and the most simple one too. Its structure can be drawn as a straight chain, called the Fischer projection formula. It is named after German chemist Emil Fischer, who discovered the structure of glucose in 1891. In 1902, Fischer received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work with sugars. We now know that sugars typically occur in a cyclic structure called the Haworth formula. The ring structure is named after British chemist Norman Haworth, who received the 1937 Nobel Prize for his work on vitamin C and carbohydrates. Glucose is the fuel for the brains of healthy mammals.

     Sugars are so appealing to humans because they are sweet. Sweetness is one of the major tastes, and it typically means that a food is good to eat. The strongest sensors for sweetness are in the front tip of the tongue. The A-H,B model suggests that the arrangement of atoms in a molecule determines the sweetness.

     Without sugar, the slave trade would not have reached the magnitude that it did. Sugar continues to have a major impact on the world today. It is widely used in drinks and foods, and sweet treats are very popular during holidays and among children.

Cellulose
     Cotton was another crop that depended upon slave labor. The fruit of a cotton plant is called a boll. It's a pod that contains cotton fibers and oily seeds. Cotton had to be imported to Britain and other countries in the north because it requires long hot summers to grow. Lancashire, England became the center for the cotton manufacturing industry because the dampness made it easier for the fibers to stick together, reducing the breaking of fibers in production, reducing production costs.
    England imported 2.5 million pounds of raw cotton in 1760. Within 80 years, the country's production rates were at 140 times this amount. The harsh work requirements for cotton factories resulted in poor living conditions in England. Several families were crammed into a cold, damp, and dirty building, and another family lived in the cellar. Not even half of the children born in these conditions lived past the age of 5. This concerned authorities because the children wouldn't live to work in the factories. Children that worked in the factory were often beaten to keep them awake for the long hours of the workday. When English legislation banned the slave trade in 1807, industrialists imported slave-grown cotton from the southern part of America. Raw cotton was Britain's major import between 1825 and 1873. However, during WWI the raw cotton supplies were cut off, so cotton processing decreased.

     Cotton contains over 90 percent cellulose, which is a polymer of glucose. These polymers, also called polysaccharides, are classified based on their function in a cell. Cellulose is a structural polysaccharide, meaning it provides support for an organism. Structural polysaccharides contain beta-glucose units, which have an OH group on the first carbon, above the glucose ring.The structure of cellulose makes cotton a very desirable fabric. Cellulose forms long chains that pack tightly together in side by side bundles. The bundles twist together to form fibers that can be seen with the naked eye. The OH groups on the outside of the bundles allow cotton to absorb water, accounting for its ability to "wick" moisture from the body while sweating.

     Cellulose in the cotton form was responsible for both the Industrial Revolution and the American Civil War. Cotton caused the urbanization and industrialization in England. It also was a major cause of slavery in America, which was an important issue in the Civil War. Nitrocellulose (guncotton), discovered by Friedrich Schönbein, was one of the first organic explosive molecules made by man. This discovery led to other industries that were based on nitrated forms of cellulose: explosives, photography, and movies. Cellulose played a major role in shaping the world we live in today.