What is the difference between Glucose and Dextrose?

Glucose and dextrose are considered to be the same thing when D-glucose is involved. Glucose comes in two forms, which are D-glucose and L-glucose. The D- glucose is also considered to be another name for Dextrose, which is abundant in nature, while L-glucose is less abundant in nature. This shows that the difference between the two is not much. One major difference is that the glucose contains D- form and L- form while the dextrose contains just the D- form.

This also leads to another difference, which is Glucose occurs as enantiomers, while dextrose does not occur as enantiomers. The chemical properties present in glucose can also be found in dextrose; that is why glucose can also be called dextrose. Glucose is known as the most common carbohydrate, which is classified as monosaccharide, and aldose, a hexose, and reducing sugar.

Glucose and Dextrose are closely related because Dextrose is chemically identical to glucose. Despite that chemical similarity, there are many differences between them. Both are simple sugars. Dextrose is used to describe D-glucose. Dextrose can only be found as D-Glucose, while glucose can be D-glucose or L-glucose. Another difference between them is how a person can obtain the sugars. Dextrose is mainly obtained from starches, while Glucose mainly comes from carbohydrates. Along with how they are obtained, these simple sugars also differ in regards to how abundant they are in nature. Glucose is not as abundant in nature as Dextrose is.