Preface*
This Special Topic Issue of Pure and Applied Chemistry on the
"Science of Sweeteners" derives from the 2nd International
Symposium on Sweeteners, which was successfully heald on 13-17 November
2001 in Hiroshima, Japan under the auspices of IUPAC. (The 1st Symposium
was held July 1997 in Jerusalem, Israel.)
The health problems caused by the extensive use of sweeteners in the
human diet still persist. Ingestion of excessive high-calorie saccharides
such as sucrose, glucose, and fructose has been linked to dental caries,
diabetes, hyperlipidemia, obesity, and many dietary-dependent diseases.
Consequently, the development of safe, low-calorie, noncariogenic sweeteners
has been the focus of intense (and sometimes controversial) scientific,
commercial, and public interest.
In light of their tremendous potential commercial and medical benefits,
compounds from a variety of chemical categories have been investigated
as "sugar substitutes". Synthetic heterocyclic compounds,
saccharides, halogenated saccharides, sugar alcohols, plant glycosides
(terpenoids, steroids, and phenolics), peptides, and proteins have been
examined.
Research on sweeteners encompasses a diverse set of scientific disciplines
involving physiology, molecular biology, synthetic chemistry, structural
chemistry, enzyme chemistry, food chemistry, pharmacology, nutritional
science, preventative medicine, and dental science. Because of this
diversity in research disciplines, it has been difficult for individual
scientific societies to comprehensively deal with sweeteners. Adding
to the complexity of the problem, legislation on the commercial use
of sweeteners varies from country to country. Therefore, there have
been numerous national symposia and scientific publications focusing
on select aspects of sweeteners.
The aim and purpose of the symposium was to bring together scientists
and technologists from a variety of disciplines from all over the world.
The goal of this diverse assembly was to allow the participants to get
a comprehensive perspective on sweetener research. Ultimately, it is
hoped that this will lead to new approaches and contribute to further
progress on sweeteners in the new century.
The symposium was chronologically divided into four sessions. The first
day concentrated on the topics of chemoreception and biochemical aspects
of receptors. The second day was directed mainly toward naturally intense
sweeteners, including design and synthesis. The third day was spent
on the topics of oligosaccharides and sugar alcohols, and the last day
was devoted to the potential role of sweeteners in the etiology and
prevention of disease.
The symposium comprised 11 invited lectures, 20 symposium lectures,
10 contributed papers, and 28 poster contributions. There were 181 participants
from 21 countries. Ample time was provided for fruitful discussions
of the comprehensive science of sweeteners.
Finally, the organizers are grateful to all who sponsored the workshop.
Besides the main sponsor, IUPAC, extensive support was obtained from
the many sponsors as indicated in the individual abstracts. This issue
is the result of an invitation to participants to submit for publication
articles based on their presentations. It reflects well the panorama
of subjects covered in the symposium with respect to both fundamental
aspects and the importance of current and new research on the development
of sweeteners. The topics covered vary from receptor studies, to natural
sweeteners, to design and synthesis of sweeteners, to industrial applications.
We thank all authors and reviewers of the articles for their efforts
in making this a successful issue.
Kazuo Yamasaki
Chairman, Organizing Committee
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima University
Osamu Tanaka
Chairman, Planning Committee
Professor Emeritus, Hiroshima University
* Preface to Pure Appl. Chem., Vol. 74, No. 7, 2002. A Special
topic issue on the science of sweeteners.
> Back to Contents
> Back
to Calendar