Sucrose is dextrorotatory but the mixture obtained after hydrolysis is laevorotatory. Explain.
The pure nature of sucrose in aqueous solution is dextrorotatory, which means it rotates plane-polarised light entering the solution to the right. But when it is hydrolysed, it gets converted into dextrorotatory D-(+)-glucose and laevorotatory D-(-)-fructose in equimolar concentration. Due to this, the sign of rotation shifts from Dextro (+) to laevo (–). Thus, this makes the overall hydrolysed solution laevorotatory.