Artificial Sweetener
Artificial sweeteners are synthetic substances used to replace sugar in foods and beverages. Typically, they are much sweeter than sugar, have few or no calories. They are widely used by dieters and people afflicted with diabetes. Saccharin, cyclamates, and aspartame are the three widely used artificial sweeteners.
Saccharin was the first true artificial sweetener invented. It was discovered in 1879 by two chemists at Johns Hopkins University, the German Constantin Fahlberg (1850-1910) and the American Ira Remsen (1846-1927). While investigating the derivatives of toluene, an ingredient found in coal tar, the scientists noticed a sweet taste on their hands. They then traced toluene back to a new compound that was 300 to 500 times sweeter than sugar. Saccharin came on the market in the early 1900s. Doubts about its safety soon arose however, and it was banned in 1912. It reappeared during the sugar shortages of World War I. In the early 1970s, tests indicated a possible link between saccharin and bladder cancer in rats. When the FDA began making preparations to ban the sweetener in 1977, congress halted their efforts. At that point, the FDA required manufacturers to publish warning labels on all foods containing saccharin the following year. Canada outlawed the use of saccharin in prepared foods beginning in 1977.
In 1937, a new synthetic sweetener was accidentally discovered by Ph.D. candidate Michael Sveda (1912-) at a University of Illinois chemistry laboratory. Like Remsen and Fahlberg, Sveda noticed a sweet taste on his fingers and found a chemical responsible, which was eventually called cyclamate. Ludwig Audrieth (1901-) joined Sveda's investigations during the 1940s, and in June 1950 Abbott Laboratories marketed the substance as the sweetener Sucaryl. It was 30 to 50 times as sweet as sugar, did not have saccharin's bitter aftertaste, and signaled an explosion of artificially sweetened low-calorie products, especially diet soft drinks. As with saccharin, however, cyclamates were linked with the possibility of bladder cancer in rats. Amid widespread media coverage, cyclamates were banned in the United States in 1970. Scientific opinion remains split on the safety of cyclamates. They are banned in some countries, but allowed in others worldwide.
Today, aspartame is the most widely used artificial sweetener. Made from two amino acids, aspartame was discovered by an American chemist, James M. Schlatter (1942-), who--like his two predecessors--noticed during a 1965 experiment that his fingers tasted sweet. Approximately 200 times as sweet as sugar and having no bitter aftertaste, aspartame was approved by the FDA in 1974 for use in dry foods (such as cereal or chewing gum) and as a tabletop sweetener. The approval was withdrawn in 1975, then reinstated in 1981; in 1983 aspartame was approved for use in carbonated beverages.
Research into other synthetic sugar substitutes continues. One of these, acesulfame K, was discovered in 1967 by Karl Clauss and Harald Jensen of Germany and was approved for use in the United States in 1988. Another sugar substitute, N-(4-nitrophenylcarbamoyl)-L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester, which is comparable to aspartame, was discovered in 1982 by Frenchmen Claude Noffre and Jean-Marie Tinti. An incredibly sweet substance, it is 17,000 to 52,000 times sweeter than sugar.
In 1998, the FDA approved the use of sucralose, another high-intensity sweetener. It is derived from sucrose but is 600 times as sweet. To produce sucralose, the manufacturers start with sucrose and chemically modify it by replacing three hydroxyl groups with chlorine. This results in a compound that tastes sweeter than sucrose, but can not be digested by the body. It is anticipated that this material will become the standard in artificial sugars.
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