Sveda, Michael

The man who discovered cyclamate, Michael Sveda of Greenwich, yesterday questioned the test methods that led the government to condemn cyclamate. "If massive doses of it are bad, does this mean that normal doses will cause cancer . .. A 3 per cent salt solution wiU kiU you, too, if you drink too much of it, Mr. Sveda said. "They should have tried to find out what effect massive doses of sugar would have on the rats, too." (Schmeck 1969)... 

With the general name of cyclohexylsulphamate, this sweetener was discovered in 1937 by Michael Sveda at the University of Illinois. The sodium salt is the most commonly used form. It is a white crystalline salt with good solubility. The relative sweetness of cyclamate is comparatively low, at approximately 35, in most food systems (Bakal, 1983). The taste quality of cyclamate as a sole sweetener has a slow onset time and can have a sweet/sour aftertaste at high concentrations (Franta et al., 1986). Sweetness quality is greatly unproved in combination with other sweeteners. Cyclamate is synergistic with acesulfame K (Von Rymon Lipinsky, 1985), aspartame (Searle, 1971), saccharin (Von Rymon Lipinsky, 1987) and sucralose (Tate Lyle Pic, 2002). 

The cyclamate family of compounds is discovered by Michael Sveda, a graduate student at the University of Illinois. 

In 1937, Michael Sveda was smoking a cigarette in his laboratory (a veiy dangerous practice to say the least ). He touched the cigarette to his lips and was surprised by the exceedingly sweet taste. The chemical on his hands turned out to be cyclamate, which soon became a staple of the artificial sweetener industiy. 

Artificial sweetener American chemist Michael Sveda invents cyclamates, which is used as a noncaloric artificial sweetener until it is banned by the U.S. government in 1970 because of possible carcinogenic effects. 

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