The Sugars of Some Florida Nectars

Abstract

The quantitative composition of major sugars in the nectars of 35 plant species was compared with that of 12 fruit juices. The use of specific quantitative assays for glucose, fructose, and sucrose made it possible to analyze large samples without quantitative chromatographic separations. Sucrose ranged from 0–99%. In most nectars, glucose and fructose were present in approximately equal amounts. No evidence was found for the presence of maltose, raffinose, and other oligosaccharides.