mammary tissue
Lactose Lactose is known as milk sugar because it occurs in the milk of humans, cows, and other mammals. In fact, the natural synthesis of lactose occurs only in mammary tissue, whereas most other carbohydrates are plant products. Human milk contains about 7.5% lactose, and cows milk contains about 4.5%. This sugar is one of the lowest ranking in terms of sweetness, being about one-sixth as sweet as sucrose seeTable 16.1 "The Relative Sweetness of Some Compounds Sucrose = 100 " in Section 16.3 "Important Hexoses" . Lactose is produced commercially from whey, a by-product in the manufacture of cheese. It is important as an infant food and in the production of penicillin. Lactose is a reducing sugar composed of one molecule of D-galactose and one molecule of D-glucose joined by a -1,4-glycosidic bond the bond from the anomeric carbon of the first monosaccharide unit being directed upward . The two monosaccharides are obtained from lactose by acid hydrolysis or the catalytic action of the enzyme lactase:.