Xylitol: A sweetener with special qualities

Artificial sweeteners are making deeper inroads into the area of confectioneries, health foods, sugar free products for diabetics and many other food products. There is a great structural variation among sweeteners, and it has not been possible to predict whether a particular structural feature in a molecule is responsible for the sweetness. Saccharin, cyclamates, aspartame are some of the important synthetic sweeteners which are many times sweeter than the age old sugar. However, since many of them cause serous side effects there is a need to develop safer sweetening agents. The present article describes a newer compound Xylitol that is useful as a sweetening agent.