In 1965, while developing an ulcer drug, James M. Schlatter at G.D. Searle accidentally tasted one of his compounds and discovered aspartame. Recalling the event, said Schlatter, "Some of the powder got onto my fingers. When licking my finger to pick up a piece of paper, I noticed a very strong, sweet taste." While this approach of discovery might seem somewhat haphazard, perhaps even dangerous, it was by no means novel. Saccharin, the oldest artificial sweetener, was discovered in 1879 while Ira Remsen and and Constantine Fahlberg were synthesizing coal tar derivatives. Fahlberg discovered the sweetness of one of the compounds at dinner after not thoroughly washing this hands. To uncover which compound, he returned to his lab and sampled bottle after bottle of his chemicals searching for what he had tasted. Thus saccharin was discovered [1].
[1] I. Flatow, They all laughed-- : from light bulbs to lasers, the fascinating stories behind the great inventions that have changed our lives, New York: HarperCollins, 1992, pp. 156-160.
Posted by torque at April 23, 2004 8:04 AM | TrackBackNo way Schlatter discovered this accidentally.
It had to take many experiments to find the right amount of methanol (wood alcohol) to make this dangerous molecule.
Mae Brussell, the late whistleblower said on one of her radio shows that aspartame was once on the Pentagon list of biological warfare weapons..
And indeed it is sickening and killing (sudden cardiac death)victims all over the world.
send me information on the structure/sweetness of saccharin
Posted by: Atiga simeon E at January 15, 2005 4:47 AM