Fructose (fruit sugar) is the only ketose that occurs naturally. It is found free in a mixture with dextrose (honey, sweet fruits, tomatoes) or bound as a component of cane sugar and various starch-like carbohydrates. As fructose tastes sweeter than dextrose, it finds great use as a sweetening agent.
In 1932, the polarographic reducibility of sugar was described for the first time by Heyrovsky and Smoler. The following method can be used to determine the fructose content of fruit, fruit juice and honey quantitatively.