p. 509 | Health and Temperance

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 19, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 32.

Health and Temperance

A New Saccharine Substance.

A NEW sweetening agent has been produced from coal tar. It is known to chemists as "benzoyle sulphuric imide," but it is proposed to name it "saccharine." The discoverer is Dr. Fahlberg, and its preparation and properties were recently described by Mr. Ivan Levinstein at a meeting of the Manchester Section of the Society of Chemical Industry. Saccharine presents the appearance of a white powder, and crystallizes from its aqueous solution in thick, short prisms, which are with difficulty soluble in cold water, but more easily in warm. Alcohol, ether, glucose, glycerol, are good solvents of saccharine. It melts at 200° C., with partial decomposition. Its taste in diluted solution is intensely sweet; so much so, that one part will give a very sweet taste to 10,000 parts of water. Saccharine forms salts, all of which possess a powerful saccharine taste. It is endowed with moderately strong antiseptic properties, and is not decomposed in the human system, but eliminated from the body without undergoing any change. It is about 230 times sweeter than the best cane or beet-root sugar.

The use of saccharine, therefore, will not be merely as a probable substitute for sugar, but it may even be applied to medical purposes where sugar is not permissible. One part of saccharine added to 1,000 parts of glucose forms a mixture quite as sweet as ordinary cane sugar. The present price is 50s. per pound, but although very high, this is not prohibitory, as its sweetening power is so great; but it is very probable the cost of its manufacture will soon be very considerably reduced. This new compound will be of great interest, for not only is it perfectly wholesome, but it possesses, in addition to its intensely sweet taste, decided antiseptic properties.—Sel.