The partnership between chlorophyll and the sun goes back a long way.
Green plants use the sunlight to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, releasing the oxygen and turning carbon into various nutritious elements for the plant, including sucrose (sugar). This process is called
photosynthesis.
The leaves contain chlorophyll and act as a laboratory for producing sugar. The sugar is transported by the sap into the sugar “stores” – the stem in the case of sugar cane and the root in the case of sugar beets. Sugar provides the plant with
a source of energy. All that’s left is to extract it.
All plants containing chlorophyll produce sugar, but the two plants that store the most sugar are sugar cane and sugar beet.