Scientific name phthaloyl sulfonyl imide
English name saccharin
The molecular formula is C7H5O3NS.
Structural formula 1, 1, 3- trioxy-2,3-dihydro-benzo [d] isothiazole.
Basic information
Saccharin is the oldest sweetener. Saccharin was discovered by American scientists in 1878, and was quickly accepted by food industry and consumers. Saccharin is 300 to 500 times sweeter than sucrose. Is not metabolized and absorbed by human body, and is stable in various food production processes. The disadvantages are poor flavor and bitter taste, which limit its application.
Saccharin/sodium saccharin is a white crystalline powder, which is insoluble in water, while its sodium salt is soluble in water and stable to heat. It is 300 ~ 500 times sweeter than sucrose and contains no calories. When eating, there will be a slight bitter taste and metallic taste left on the tongue. Acute toxicity LD50 (rabbit) is 5000 ~ 8000 mg/kg body weight (oral); The safe allowable daily intake is 0 ~ 2.5 mg/kg body weight/day. Some research results show that the possibility of bladder cancer has been found in animal experiments, but no adverse reactions have been found in human experiments.
Saccharin has been the only synthetic sweetener produced and used in large quantities in the world for many years, especially during the Second World War, the use of saccharin in various countries in the world increased greatly. The main raw materials for making saccharin are toluene, chlorosulfonic acid and o-toluidine, all of which are petrochemical products.
Invention process
The sugar that people often eat in daily life is extracted from plants such as sugarcane and beet. There are some substances in the plant kingdom that are sweeter than sucrose. Stevia rebaudiana originated in South America is 200 ~ 300 times sweeter than sucrose. The sweetness of West African bamboo spatula fruit in African tropical forest is 3000 times sweeter than sucrose. There is also a vine of Stephania tetrandra in Africa, the fruit is 90000 times sweeter than sucrose.
However, these substances are thousands of times sweeter than sucrose, which we seldom see. What we usually use is saccharin, which is 500 times sweeter than sucrose.
From a chemical point of view, sugar and saccharin are completely irrelevant. Only one thing is the same, that is, they are all sweet. How was saccharin discovered?
/kloc-one afternoon in 0/879, in the laboratory of the University of Baltimore, the Russian chemist Farid Berger was happily shuttling between bottles and cans. Today, he is in a particularly good mood. First, the synthesis experiment of aromatic sulfonic acid compounds he is doing is progressing smoothly and will have results soon. Secondly, today is his birthday, and his wife Natasha prepared dinner for him to get together.
Twilight arrival, the laboratory gradually darkened. When the flask made a sound, farid Bigger watched intently under the gas lamp. The tumbling solution has completely forgotten the birthday dinner in the evening. Finally, the experiment has a clue. He happily picked up the pencil on the desk and recorded the experimental results in the experimental notebook. At this moment, the wall clock on the wall rang. "Oh, it's already 6 o'clock." Only then did he remember the time for dinner. He hurriedly put a pencil in his pocket, put on his coat and ran home.
The wife and husband are busy together. The husband sets the glasses and tableware, and the wife brings plates of dishes. Dinner started in a pleasant atmosphere.
Farid Bigger forked a steak and stuffed it into his mouth. Suddenly, he stopped chewing and asked with a little surprise, "Natasha, did you put sugar in your fried steak today?" "No, I've never heard of adding sugar to steak. However, "the wife also said strangely," there is something wrong with the food today. Just try it. This salad is also sweet. "
After dinner, farid Berger was still thinking about this strange sweet steak and sweet salad. Out of the habit of scientists, he wants to find out the reason. After checking the kitchen utensils, he fixed his suspicious eyes on the tableware. He licked the edge of the plate, thought for a moment, then licked his hand, then immediately took out the pencil in his pocket and licked it with his tongue.
"The problem is pencils, pencils!" Farid Bigger roared, "Look, Natasha, all the tableware I touched with my hands is sweet. This sweetness comes from my pencil." To be sure, the sweetness on the pencil was acquired in the laboratory. It seems that there must be a strange and especially sweet substance in the laboratory. I'm going to find out. "
Farid Berger rushed to the laboratory, lit the gas lamp, and carefully checked the experimental utensils one by one. Finally, he found that the sweetness came from a chemical called o- sulfonimide sodium.
This accidental discovery opened a new road of invention for farid Berg. Since then, he has concentrated all his energy on studying the substances extracted from this coal tar. He extracted toluene from black, sticky and smelly coal tar, treated it with sulfuric acid sulfonation, phosphorus pentachloride and ammonia water, then oxidized it with potassium permanganate, and finally obtained a particularly sweet white crystal through crystallization dehydration. He called it "saccharin" and measured that it was 500 times sweeter than sucrose.
Farid Berg immediately announced his invention and obtained a patent in the United States. 1886, the chemist moved to Germany, where he established the world's first factory to extract saccharin from coal tar. Saccharin began to break into people's lives.
Saccharin is sweet, but harmful.
According to the survey, in recent years, the application of saccharin in food has obviously exceeded the scope and dosage. In order to reduce costs and reap huge profits, some manufacturers generally use saccharin instead of sucrose in foods such as drinks, preserved fruits and even jellies specially for children. However, they don't make any explicit statements on food labels, or cover up the fact of using saccharin under the good names of "protein sugar" and "sweet treasure", which harms consumers' health and seriously infringes on consumers' right to know, causing close attention from all walks of life and consumers.
The chemical name of saccharin is phthalimide, and the commercially available saccharin is actually the soluble sodium salt of phthalimide, referred to as saccharin sodium. The sweetness of saccharin sodium is about 450~550 times that of sucrose, so its1100000 aqueous solution has a sweet feeling, and it will be bitter when the concentration is high.
The main raw materials for making saccharin are toluene, chlorosulfonic acid and o-toluidine, all of which are petrochemical products. Toluene is volatile, burning and even causing explosion. When ingested in large quantities, it will cause acute poisoning and endanger human health. Chlorosulfonic acid is easy to absorb water and decompose to produce hydrogen chloride gas, which is harmful to human body and easy to explode; Intermediate substances produced in the production of saccharin are also harmful to human health. Saccharin will also seriously pollute the environment in the production process. In addition, saccharin from some small and medium-sized saccharin factories privately flows into the vast number of small and medium-sized towns and rural markets, and also contains impurities such as heavy metals, ammonia compounds and arsenic due to rough technology and incomplete procedures. They exist and accumulate in the human body for a long time, which has different degrees of impact on human health.
Saccharin sodium is a synthetic product of organic chemical industry, and it is a food additive rather than a food. Except for sweetness, it has no nutritional value to human body. On the contrary, eating too much saccharin will affect the normal secretion of gastrointestinal digestive enzymes, reduce the absorption capacity of small intestine and reduce appetite.
According to foreign data, the feeding experiments of rats for generations in Canada from 65438 to 0997 found that large intake of saccharin sodium could lead to bladder cancer in male rats. Therefore, the laws of developed countries, such as the United States, stipulate that when saccharin is used in food, the warning that "using this product may be harmful to health, and this product contains saccharin that can cause cancer in experimental animals" must be indicated on the label.
Because eating saccharin is harmful to human health, some developed countries in the west strictly control the use of saccharin, and its control standard generally does not exceed 5% of the total sugar consumption, and it is mainly used for industrial purposes such as toothpaste. However, compared with developed countries, the amount of saccharin used in China is 14 times of the normal amount. Some experts even warned that by the second half of 1999, the share of saccharin in the national sugar market had reached 55% ~ 60% of the total market share, which severely squeezed the share of sucrose.
Because the sweetness of 2 kg of saccharin can be equivalent to 1000 kg of sugar, according to the current market price ratio, that is, 60~70 yuan saccharin can replace about 3,000 yuan of sugar. Therefore, in order to pursue profits, some enterprises use saccharin in excess and beyond the scope in the process of producing beverages and processed foods, but the labels of foods and beverages do not indicate the saccharin content and its true content, which makes consumers mistakenly think that they are eating sugar, which harms consumers' health and seriously infringes consumers' right to know.
In particular, a small number of consumers eat saccharin in large quantities in a short time without knowing the harm of saccharin at all, causing thrombocytopenia, acute bleeding, multiple organ damage and so on. And cause a vicious poisoning incident.
In the vast small and medium-sized towns and rural markets in China, the use of saccharin has also reached the point of flooding. A recent survey conducted by China Consumers Association on nearly 100 kinds of beverages with different grades and types in China shows that about 6 1.2% of the beverages in China contain various sweeteners, of which 55. 1% contains saccharin. Saccharin was used in the production of 23.5% beverages, but it was not indicated in the label; Especially in small and medium-sized towns and rural markets, the beverage containing saccharin is as high as 90.9%, and the degree of saccharin flooding is shocking.
At present, the problem of saccharin in snacks of primary and secondary school students can not be ignored. Around some primary and secondary schools, there are all kinds of food stalls selling all kinds of snacks and drinks, such as soda, ice cream, plum and so on. These low-value snack drinks are easy to attract primary and secondary school students to buy. These products, which have no production standards, labels and sources, basically contain saccharin. If eaten for a long time, it will lead to malnutrition among teenagers, and some individuals will suffer from anorexia, which will interfere with teenagers' intake of nutrition from normal diet and have a negative impact on their physical development.
To this end, China Consumers Association solemnly issued a warning: draw the relevant departments to study and formulate stricter regulations on the use of saccharin, and further strengthen the management of food labels; Call on the majority of food production enterprises not to blindly use saccharin because of one-sided pursuit of profit, which will harm the health of consumers, and clearly indicate that the products allowed to use saccharin by the state contain saccharin to let consumers know; Safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers; Remind consumers to establish a good consumption concept, eat more natural sugar, read product labels carefully when buying food and drinks, try to choose foods that never contain sugar and buy goods with good reputation; Parents are also reminded to educate their children and resolutely resist the "three noes" snack drinks around the campus, which is conducive to the healthy growth of young people.