Lynne Wong's PhD thesis

CHAPTER 3. SEPARATION OF THE SUGAR CANE PLANT INTO
FIBRES OF VARIOUS COMPONENT PARTS
This chapter describes the separation of the sugar cane plant, of four cane varieties and of
three different ages, into fibres of various component parts by means of a method devised
in this work. This was carried out in order to study their Brix-free water capacity and
sorption behaviour.
3.1 THE SUGAR CANE PLANT
Sugar cane is a perennial tropical grass of the genus saccharum, thought to have evolved in
the Burma-China-India area of southern Asia, and later spread to other areas. It produces
sturdy stalks 2 to 5 m in height and 3 to 5 cm in diameter. Cane leaves take up water,
nutrients and carbon dioxide in the air to form photosynthate (glucose and fructose), the
condensation reaction of which produces sucrose, a disaccharide, α-D-glucopyranosyl-β-
D-fructofuranoside, which is then stored in the internodes of the cane stalk.
6CO 2 + 6 H 2 O C 6 H 12 O 6 + 6O 2
C 6 H 12 O 6 + C 6 H 12 O 6
C 12 H 22 O 11 + H 2 O
glucose fructose sucrose
The structures of glucose, fructose and their condensation product sucrose are shown in
Fig 3.1.