Cyclamate
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Cyclamate is an artificial sweetener that was discovered in 1937 at the University of Illinois by graduate student Michael Sveda.
Like many artificial sweeteners, the sweetness of cyclamates was discovered by accident. Michael Sveda was working in the lab on the synthesis of anti-fever medication. He put his cigarette down on the lab bench and when he put it back in his mouth he discovered the sweet taste of cyclamate. The patent for cyclamate was purchased by DuPont but later sold to Abbott Laboratories which undertook the necessary studies and submitted a New Drug Application in 1950. Abbott intended to use cyclamate to mask the bitterness of certain drugs such as antibiotics and pentobarbital. In the US in 1958 it was designated GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe). Cyclamate was marketed in tablet form for use by diabetics as an alternative tabletop sweetener.
Cyclamate is 30–50 times sweeter than sugar (depending on concentration; it is not a linear relationship), making it the least potent of the commercially used artificial sweeteners. Some people find it to have an unpleasant aftertaste, but generally less so than saccharin or acesulfame potassium. It is often used synergistically with other artificial sweeteners, especially saccharin; the mixture of 10 parts cyclamate to 1 part saccharin is common and masks the off-tastes of both sweeteners. It is less expensive than most sweeteners, including sucrose, and is stable under heating.
Chemistry
Cyclamate is the sodium or calcium salt of cyclamic acid (cyclohexanesulfamic acid). It is prepared by the sulfonation of cyclohexylamine; this can be accomplished by reacting cyclohexylamine with either sulfamic acid or sulfur trioxide.
Cyclamate and cancer
In 1966, a study reported that some intestinal bacteria could desulfonate cyclamate to produce cyclohexylamine, a compound suspected to have some chronic toxicity in animals. Further research resulted in a 1969 study which found the common 10:1 cyclamate:saccharin mixture to increase the incidence of bladder cancer in rats. Other studies implicated cyclohexylamine in testicular atrophy in mice. In 1970, the Food and Drug Administration banned its sale in the United States. Abbott Laboratories claimed that its own studies were unable to reproduce the 1969 study's results, and in 1973, Abbott petitioned the FDA to lift the ban on cyclamate. This petition was eventually denied in 1980 by FDA Commissioner Jere Goyan. Abbott Labs, together with the Calorie Control Council (a political lobby representing the diet foods industry), filed a second petition in 1982. Although the FDA has stated that a review of all available evidence does not implicate cyclamate as a carcinogen in mice or rats, this petition remains open, and cyclamate remains banned from food products in the United States. Cyclamate is approved as a sweetener in more than 55 countries: for example, the brand-name beverage sweetener Sweet'N Low, which contains only saccharine in the United States, contains cyclamate in Canada.