Sodium saccharin

Sodium Saccharin is an artificial sweetener with effectively no food energy. It is about 300–400 times as sweet as sucrose but has a bitter or metallic aftertaste, especially at high concentrations. Sodium Saccharin is used to sweeten products such as drinks, candies, cookies, and medicines.

History

Sodium Saccharin was first produced in 1879 by Constantin Fahlberg, a chemist working on coal tar derivatives in Ira Remsen's laboratory at the Johns Hopkins University. Fahlberg noticed a sweet taste on his hand one evening, and connected this with the compound he had been working on that day.

Production

Sodium Saccharin is produced by the reaction of toluene with chlorosulfonic acid, sulfur dioxide, chlorine, and ammonia to give a sulfonyl chloride which is converted to the sulfonamide. The sulfonamide is then oxidized to give saccharin, which is converted to the sodium salt by treatment with sodium hydroxide.

Health Effects

In the 1970s, studies performed on laboratory rats found an association between consumption of high doses of sodium saccharin and the development of bladder cancer. However, further research has shown that these results apply only to rats and not to humans. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified saccharin as Group 3, "not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans".

Uses

Sodium Saccharin is used as a non-nutritive sweetener and stabilizer in a variety of food and drinks. Bakers use it in breads, cookies, and other baked goods. In the pharmaceutical industry, it is used to sweeten products such as cough syrup and chewable tablets.

See Also

• Artificial sweetener
• Sucrose
• Ira Remsen
• Johns Hopkins University
• Toluene
• Chlorosulfonic acid
• Sulfur dioxide
• Chlorine
• Ammonia
• Bladder cancer
• International Agency for Research on Cancer