How is Saccharin produced?

[Illuminatus]

I have been studying various high-intensity artificial sweeteners and have found that a sweetener called Saccharin is the only high-intensity artificial sweetener that does not cause any proven harm to human consumers.

 

What I don't know and have been trying to figure out is how Saccharin is manufactured. All I know is that it involves the oxidation of O-Toluenesulfonamide and I don't know what that is or where it comes from.

 

So, if anyone could explain how saccharin is produced and whether it can be done with household chemicals, I would be very appreciative. Thanks.

[jdurg]

I have really never bought into the 'artificial sweetners' are bad for you hype. Being a Type 1, Insulin-dependent-diabetic, I've been using artificial sweetners for the past 23 years now. (Got the condition when I was 2). I drink MASSIVE amounts of diet soda on a daily basis and ingest splenda, aspartame, saccharin, etc. in large quantities. There is nothing wrong with me. You can go ahead and say 'just wait until later in life when you become a walking tumor', and I just ignore them. This stuff does not cause cancer. Looking at the data, I have yet to see any confirmative proof that any cancers developed by people were a direct result of artificial sweetners. The only 'proof' they've come up with is because they gave lab rats nearly half their body weight in the stuff and the rats became ill. If you give ANYTHING half its body weight of ANYTHING, they will almost certainly get ill.

[akcapr]

isnt it in splenda? aske them

[Illuminatus]

This stuff does not cause cancer.QUOTE]

 

Yeah, I don't think that artificial sweeteners do much harm either. Especially saccharin, seeing as over 30 tests have been done on it over a period of more than 100 years and none have confirmed that there is any danger to humans consuming saccharin. How could something that isn't metabloised and doesn't react with any chemical in the body be dangerous?

 

I still don't know how saccharin is produced though....

[jdurg]

Splenda is not saccharin. Splenda is sucralose and is just a sugar molecule where the -OH groups have been replaced with Cl atoms. It's actually VERY amazing how simply replacing an -OH group with a Cl atom will make the compound just as sweet, but not be metabolized in the same manner.

[Illuminatus]

Interesting. So how does one replace the OH group with a Cl in sucrose?