Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
From sap
. The sap of some species is concentrated to make sweeteners, usually through drying
or boiling.
•
Cane juice, syrup, molasses, and raw sugar, which has many regional and commercial names
including demerara, jaggery, muscovado, panela, piloncillo, turbinado sugar, Florida Crystals, and
Sucanat, are all made from sugarcane (
Saccharum
spp.).
•
Sweet sorghum syrup is made from the sugary juice extracted from the stalks of
Sorghum
spp.,
especially
S. bicolor
(Nimbkar et al. 2006).
•
Mexican or maize sugar can be made by boiling down the juice of green maize stalks.
•
Agave syrup is made from the sap of
Agave
spp., including tequila agave (Agave tequilana; Beckley
et al. 2007).
•
Birch syrup is made from the sap of Birch trees (
Betula
spp.; Heikki et al. 2007).
•
Maple syrup, taffy, and sugar are made from the sap of tapped maple trees (
Acer
spp.; Moerman
1998).
•
Palm sugar is made by tapping of the lower stalk of various palms to collect the sap. The most
important species for this is the Indian date palm (
Phoenix sylvestris
), but other species used include
palmyra (
Borassus labelliformis
), coconut (
Cocos nucifera
), toddy (
Caryota urens
), gomuti (
Arenga
saccharifera
), and nipa (
Nypa fruticans
) palms.
•
The sweet resin of the sugar pine (
Pinus lambertiana
) was considered by John Muir to be better than
maple sugar (Saunders 1976).
From roots
. The juice extracted from the tuberous roots of certain plants is, much like sap, con-
centrated to make sweeteners, usually through drying or boiling.
•
Sugar beet syrup (
ZuckerrübenSirup
in German) is made from the tuberous roots of the sugar beet
(
Beta vulgaris
; Emery 2003). Sugar beet molasses, a by-product of the processing to make reined
sugar, also exists but is mainly used for animal feed (Draycott 2006).
•
Yacón syrup is made from the tuberous roots of yacón (
Smallanthus sonchifolius
; Manrique et al.
2005).
From nectar and lowers
. A “palatable” brown sugar can be made by boiling down the dew from
lowers of the common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca).
From seeds
. The starchy seeds of certain plants are transformed into sweeteners by using the
enzymes formed during germination or from bacterian cultures. Some sweeteners made with starch
are quite reined and made by degrading puriied starch with enzymes, such as corn syrup.
•
Barley malt syrup is made from germinated barley grains (Roehl 1996).
•
Brown rice malt syrup is made from rice grains cooked and then cultured with malt enzymes
(Belleme and Belleme 2007).
•
Amazake is made from rice fermented with
Koji
(
Aspergillus oryzae
; Belleme and Belleme 2007).
From fruits
. Many fresh fruits, dried fruits, and fruit juices are used as sweeteners. Some exam-
ples are as follows:
•
Watermelon sugar, which is made by boiling the juice of ripe watermelons.
•
Pumpkin sugar, which is made by grating the pumpkins, in the same manner as in making beet
sugar (Hovey 1841).
•
Dates, date paste, spread, syrup (“dibs”), or powder (date sugar) is made from the fruit of the date
palm (
Phoenix dactylifera
).
•
Jallab is made by combining dates, grape molasses, and rose water.
•
Pekmez is made of grapes, ig (
Ficus carica
), and mulberry (
Morus
spp.) juices, condensed by boil-
ing with coagulant agents.
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