Sweetening agents Sucrose

C (decomp.) It is made by the oxidation of toluene-o-sulphonamide with alkaline permanganate. Saccharin has about 550 times the sweetening power of sucrose, and is used extensively as a sweetening agent, usually in the form of the sodium salt. The use of saccharin is restricted in the U.S. 

Sucrose, commonly known as sugar, has been used as a natural sweetening agent for almost 4000 years. It is isolated from sugarbeet beta vulgaris) in Europe and from sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) in the tropics. Its total world production in 1994—1995 was 116 million metric tons. 

The isothiazole ring does not occur in nature. By far the most important synthetic isothiazole derivative is saccharin. This was the first non-carbohydrate sweetening agent to be discovered, as long ago as 1879. It is about 300 times as sweet as sucrose, and is still used in many countries as a non-nutritive sweetener. After it was found that administration of massive doses to rats caused bladder cancer, its use was banned in the New World, but the controversy continues as to whether there is any danger when it is used in small quantity. Saccharin is also used as an additive in electroplating processes (73AHC(15)233). 

Other drugs in combination with a sweetening agent were also studied, dextromethorphan hydrobromide [21], doxycycline hydrochloride [21], erythromycin [23], chloramphenicol [23], ampicillin [23] and cefpodoxime proxetil [23] as bitter drugs and simple syrup (2.5M sucrose solution, used as a flavoring agent prescribed by The Japanese... 

Both solid and liquid dosage forms may contain saccharin. Saccharin is a nonnutritive sweetening agent, which is 300 times as sweet as sucrose. In a survey of sweetener content of pediatric medications, seven out of nine chewable tablets contained saccharin (0.45-8.0 mg/tablet) and sucrose or mannitol. Seventy-four of the 150 liquid preparations investigated contained saccharin (1.25-33 mg/5 mL) [62], Saccharin is a sulfanamide derivative that should be avoided in children with sulfa allergies [54],... 

Intense sweeteners have low functionality besides their sweet taste. Therefore intense sweeteners cannot be used as the only sweetening agents whenever at least one of the mentioned functions is important for a product. Combinations of intense and bulk sweeteners will come close to sucrose and other sweet carbohydrates in functionality and taste, and can therefore be considered as an interesting alternative to sugar in applications requiring functional properties. They are often used in addition to bulk sweeteners in the typical application of these. 

Many sweet-tasting foods and beverages, however, do not require the functionality of sucrose and sweet carbohydrates. These products are the typical fields of application of intense sweeteners. As bulk sweeteners are used for taste reasons rather than functionality these products offer possibilities to reduce calories without sacrificing any important product characteristic. Intense sweeteners are used as the sole sweetening agents in beverages, table-top sweeteners like powder or tablets, desserts and dairy products besides a variety of further areas of lesser importance. 

In addition to sucrose, a number of other sweetening agents have been utilized in foods and pharmaceuficals over the years, including dextrose, mannitol, sorbitol, aspartame, saccharin, and others. Some sweeteners, such as sucrose, aid in preserving the product. 

Food additives such as preservatives, sweetening agents, flavours, antioxidants, edible colours and nutritional supplements are added to the food to make It attractive, palatable and add nutritive value. Preservatives are added to the food to prevent spoilage due to microbial growth. Artificial sweeteners are used by those who need to check the calorie Intake or are diabetic and want to avoid taking sucrose. 

Attempts to use sucrose itself for other purposes than as a food or sweetening agent cannot be said to have met with much success in the past. 

Sorbitol is a hexahydric alcohol that is isomeric with mannitol, and which has been described as a humectant, plasticizer, sweetening agent, and tablet and capsule diluent. It is used extensively in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and food industries, since it has a sweet taste and approximately 50-60% the sweetness of sucrose. 

Aspartame, discovered by Mazur in 1969 (5), is 200 times sweeter than sucrose. Aspartame has a large commercial market as an artificial sweetening agent. It is apparent that the sweetness exhibited by aspartame requires amino (AH, electropositive) and carboxyl (B, electronegative) groups of aspartic acid moiety and the hydrophobic side chain (X) of the phenylalanine moiety (4). The sweetness of aspartame is exhibited by the trifunctional units AH, B, and X. It is thought that when the trifunctional units of aspartame, X, AH, and B, fit the corresponding receptor sites, a sweet taste is produced. 

Fraudulent addition of sucrose is very difficult to detect (22) because some sucrose is normally present, and added sucrose is rapidly hydrolyzed. Since commercial sucrose contains small amounts of unfermentable impurities, it has been suggested (60) that GLC would detect these in wines. Synthetic sweetening agents can be detected by thin-layer chromatography (64, 65). 

Hazemoto et al (1+0) developed an ion-selective electrode sensitive to saccharin, by establishing an ion association between Fe2+-bathophenanthroline chelate and saccharin in nitrobenzene. The electrode developed could measure saccharin ion in presence of other sweetening agents e.g., sucrose, glucose, sodium cyclamate and sorbitol in the concentration range of 10 - - to 10 M. 

The disaccharide sucrose (1) is readily available in bulk quantities from sugar cane or beet. Its major use is in the food industry as a sweetening agent. Despite numerous publications, and a significant amount of research, sucrose has not found a place as a chiral chemical raw material. Sucrose has, however, been derivatized to provide useful food products that have become large-volume products (vide infra). 

In nature, the amino acids are combined to give proteins with hundreds or even thousands of amino acids in each one. Small assemblies of amino acids are known as peptides and die amide bond that links them is called a peptide bond. One important dipeptide is the sweetening agent aspartame, whose synthesis was discussed in Chapter 25. It is composed (and made) of the amino acid aspartic acid (Asp) and the methyl ester of phenylalanine. Only this enantiomer has a sweet taste and it is very sweet indeed—about 160 times as sweet as sucrose. 

Sucrose and other natural sweeteners, such as sorbitol, can be used in effervescent products, although artificial sweetening agents are customary. However, the application of artificial sweeteners is restricted by health regulations. Therefore, the use of such sweeteners will vary from one country to the next based on national standards. 

Aspartame (a-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine 1-methyl ester) is a sweetening agent that is roughly 200 times sweeter than sucrose. Routes for preparing this compound are described in U.S. 3,492,131, U.S. 4,440,677 (both to G. D. Searle Co.), and U.S. 5,476,961 (to the NutraSweet Company). Determine which route gives the lowest cost of production. 

Alitame is an intense sweetening agent developed in the early 1980s and is approximately 2000 times sweeter than sucrose. It has an insignificant energy contribution of 6 kj (1.4 kcal) per gram of alitame. 

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