SWEETER SUGAR.

Shannon News, 5 April 1928, Page 2

SWEETER SUGAR.

PRODUCT FROM PINES.

Chemistry’s latest gift to the world is the discovery of a new- and highly promising source of sugar in the humble artichoke. It has been found that the tubers of this vegetable contain over 12 per .cent, of “inulin,” a substance, very like starch, but which on treatment with acid yields fructose. Artichokes grow very easily and give heavy crops, and if the conversion of their inulin into sugar can be done on a commercial scale an acre of artichokes, according to an estimate made by a contributor to London; “Answers,” will yield over 4000 pounds of sugar per acre, as against 3000 pounds from an acre of beets. And the artichoke sugar will be much sweeter, Scarcely anyone would associate ,fir trees with a “sweet tooth,” yet a sugar far sweeter than that obtained from cane or beets comes from the “needles” of the Douglas fir. . The Douglas fir tree is a tall tree, often attaining a height of 100 feet, and its foliage under certain climatic conditions exudes a syrup which with exposure to the sun aiid air becomes pure white sugar. It collects at the tips of the “needles,” drop after drop, forming tiny, snow-white globules, and this sugar, from Nature’s own refinery, is very easily dissolved and of a pleasing taste. In this age of progress the science of chemistry is discovering still more sources for the supply of sugar. First the cane, then the beet, the maple, and the fir. And still man’s sweet tooth is not satisfied. It sounds a little far fetched to suggest that sugars vary in sweetness, but the statement is, nevertheless, true. Chemists recognise many different kinds of sugar, which they label with words ending in “ose,” and to each they assign a different value as a sweetener. It will doubtless surprise many people to know that cane and beet, the* most common sugars in use, are not the sweetest. That distinction belongs to “fructose,” the sugar of honey and of almost all fruits.