Aspartam

Aspartame is the market leader among artifi cial sweeteners It is a methyl ester of a dipeptide un related to any carbohydrate It was discovered in the course of research directed toward developing drugs to relieve indigestion... 

Saccharin sucralose and aspartame illustrate the diversity of structural types that taste sweet and the vitality and continuing development of the in dustry of which they are a part ... 

Foods sweetened with Aspartame (page 1051) con tain a PKU warning Can you see whyi... 

Procedures for determining the concentrations of caffeine, benzoic acid and aspartame in soda by these three methods are provided. In the example provided in this paper, the concentrations of caffeine and benzoic acid in Mello Yellow are determined spectrophotometrically. 

The concentrations of benzoic acid, aspartame, caffeine, and saccharin in a variety of beverages are determined in this experiment. A Gig column and a mobile phase of 80% v/v acetic acid (pH = 4.2) and 20% v/v methanol are used to effect the separation. A UV detector set to 254 nm is used to measure the eluent s absorbance. The ability to adjust retention times by changing the mobile phase s pH is also explored. 

Caffeine, benzoic acid, and aspartame in soft drinks are analyzed by three methods. Using several methods to analyze the same sample provides students with the opportunity to compare results with respect to accuracy, volume of sample required, ease of performance, sample throughput, and detection limit. 

Suppose that you are to separate a mixture of benzoic acid, aspartame, and caffeine in a diet soda. The following information is available to you. 

Diet soft drinks contain appreciable quantities of aspartame, benzoic acid, and caffeine. What is the expected order of elution for these compounds in a capillary zone electrophoresis separation using a pH 9.4 buffer solution, given that aspartame has pJC values of 2.964 and 7.37, benzoic acid s pfQ is 4.2, and the pfQ for caffeine is less than 0. 

There are thousands of breweries worldwide. However, the number of companies using fermentation to produce therapeutic substances and/or fine chemicals number well over 150, and those that grow microorganisms for food and feed number nearly 100. Lists of representative fermentation products produced commercially and the corresponding companies are available (1). Numerous other companies practice fermentation in some small capacity because it is often the only route to synthesize biochemical intermediates, enzymes, and many fine chemicals used in minor quantities. The large volume of L-phenylalanine is mainly used in the manufacture of the artificial dipeptide sweetener known as aspartame [22389-47-0]. Prior to the early 1980s there was httle demand for L-phenyl alanine, most of which was obtained by extraction from human hair and other nonmicrobiological sources. 

USP grade. Estimated production cost. Majority is used to make aspartame. ... 

Formic acid is used as an intermediate in the production of a number of dmgs, dyes, flavors, and perfume components. It is used, for example, in the synthesis of aspartame and in the manufacture of formate esters for flavor and fragrance appHcations. 

Fumaric acid and malic acid [6915-15-7] are produced from maleic anhydride. The primary use for fumaric acid is in the manufacture of paper siting products (see Papermaking additives). Fumaric acid is also used to acidify food as is malic acid. Malic acid is a particularly desirable acidulant in certain beverage selections, specifically those sweetened with the artificial sweetener aspartame [22839-47-0]. 

There are numerous further appHcations for which maleic anhydride serves as a raw material. These appHcations prove the versatiHty of this molecule. The popular artificial sweetener aspartame [22839-47-0] is a dipeptide with one amino acid (l-aspartic acid [56-84-8]) which is produced from maleic anhydride as the starting material. Processes have been reported for production of poly(aspartic acid) [26063-13-8] (184—186) with appHcations for this biodegradable polymer aimed at detergent builders, water treatment, and poly(acryHc acid) [9003-01-4] replacement (184,187,188) (see Detergency). 

An estimation of the amount of amino acid production and the production methods are shown ia Table 11. About 340,000 t/yr of L-glutamic acid, principally as its monosodium salt, are manufactured ia the world, about 85% ia the Asian area. The demand for DL-methionine and L-lysiae as feed supplements varies considerably depending on such factors as the soybean harvest ia the United States and the anchovy catch ia Pern. Because of the actions of D-amiao acid oxidase and i.-amino acid transamiaase ia the animal body (156), the D-form of methionine is as equally nutritive as the L-form, so that DL-methionine which is iaexpensively produced by chemical synthesis is primarily used as a feed supplement. In the United States the methionine hydroxy analogue is partially used ia place of methionine. The consumption of L-lysiae has iacreased ia recent years. The world consumption tripled from 35,000 t ia 1982 to 100,000 t ia 1987 (214). Current world consumption of L-tryptophan and i.-threonine are several tens to hundreds of tons. The demand for L-phenylalanine as the raw material for the synthesis of aspartame has been increasing markedly. 

Aspartame (L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester [22839-47-0]) is about 200 times sweeter than sucrose. The Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) has been estabUshed by JECFA as 40 mg/kg/day. Stmcture-taste relationship of peptides has been reviewed (223). Demand for L-phenylalanine and L-aspartic acid as the raw materials for the synthesis of aspartame has been increasing, d-Alanine is one component of a sweetener "Ahtame" (224). 

Fmctose is sweeter than sucrose at low temperatures (- S C) at higher temperatures, the reverse is tme. At 40°C, they have equal sweetness, the result of a temperature-induced shift in the percentages of a- and P-fmctose anomers. The taste of sucrose is synergistic with high intensity sweeteners (eg, sucralose and aspartame) and can be enhanced or prolonged by substances like glycerol monostearate, lecithin, and maltol (19). 

Sucrose occupies a unique position in the sweetener market (Table 3). The total market share of sucrose as a sweetener is 85%, compared to other sweeteners such as high fmctose com symp (HFCS) at 7%, alditols at 4%, and synthetic sweeteners (aspartame, acesulfame-K, saccharin, and cyclamate) at 4%. The world consumption of sugar has kept pace with the production. The rapid rise in the synthetic sweetener market during 1975—1995 appears to have reached a maximum. 

The sweetness of fmctose is enhanced by synergistic combiaations with sucrose (12) and high iatensity sweeteners (13), eg, aspartame, sacchatin, acesulfame K, and sucralose. Information on food appHcation is available (14,15). Fmctose also reduces the starch gelatinization temperature relative to sucrose ia baking appHcations (16—18). 

Eig. 1. Stabihty of aspartame in water at 25°, where is the half-life (21). 

The principal pathway for the decomposition of aspartame begins with the cleavage of the ester bond, which may or may not be accompanied by cyclization (Eig. 2). The resultant diketopipera2ine and/or dipeptide can be further hydroly2ed into individual amino acids (qv). 

Fig. 2. Decomposition of aspartame to diketopipera2ine and/or aspartyl-phenylalanine and then to the amino acids aspartic acid and phenylalanine (22).

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