THE RELATIVE SWEETNESSES OF CERTAIN SUGARS, MIXTURES OF SUGARS, AND GLYCEROL

Abstract

The relative sweetnesses of the sugars glucose and lactose and of the alcohol glycerol, as compared with sucrose, vary with concentration.The relative sweetness of glucose, or lactose, or glycerol, compared with either of the other two, does not change with concentration, within the limits of the experimental method used.The following have been found to be equally sweet:(i) 2.0% sucrose and 3.8% glucose; 10.0% sucrose and 14.7% glucose; 20.0% sucrose and 25.0% glucose.(ii) 2.0% sucrose and 6.5% lactose; 5.0% sucrose and 14.9% lactose; 8.0% sucrose and 21.7% lactose.(iii) 2.25% sucrose and 4.0% glycerol; 5.5% sucrose and 8.0% glycerol; 8.9% sucrose and 12.0% glycerol.A method is described for calculating the sweetness of a mixture of sugars of known composition in terms of that of a specific concentration of sucrose or of glucose. The sweetness of each sugar is expressed in terms of that one of them for which the rate of change of the ratio of sweetness to concentration is least altered with changing concentration. The arithmetical sum of the values so calculated, referred to the appropriate curve of relative sweetness, gives the corresponding value of sucrose or glucose.The accuracy of this method is demonstrated.