28 THECUBAREVIEW 



calculated as invert sugar, and 1.98 per cent of sucro&e.(c) It also contains an average of 17.59 

 per cent of water and 0.23 per cent of mineral matter. Its flavor is due to volatile bodies 

 in the flowers from which it is obtained, some flowers imparting a more agreeable flavor than 

 others to the honey. It was formerly assumed that its composition was practically the same 

 as that of the nectar gathered by the bees, but recent investigation shows that the nectar 

 undergoes certain changes in the honey sack of the bee, and that the chemical properties 

 of honey are not quite like those of the nectar. Its behavior in cooking and storing is different 

 from that of the ordinary sugars for reasons not yet thoroughly imderstood. Honey has 

 been used as a food from the earliest times, and is generally conceded to be wholesome as well 

 as palatable. Prior to the passage of the Federal pure-food law, in 1906, strained honey 

 was very frequently adulterated with commercial glucose and other materials, such as com- 

 mercial invert sugar, but since this law went into effect there is little adulteration of this 

 product. Mixtures with glucose and invert sugar are sold^ but the law requires that they 

 be so labeled. 



JAPANESE AME 



A sweet material called ame has been made in Japan since early times from glutinous rice 

 or glutinous millet, sometimes from common rice and rarely from Indian corn or sweet pota- 

 toes, by converting the starch they contain into maltose (a double sugar similar to sucrose, 

 lactose, etc.) by the action of an unorganized ferment called diastase. Malt or sprouted barley 

 is generally used to furnish the ferment. The cleaned grain or other material is soaked in water 

 and steamed until the starch grains are broken open and made easily accessible to the ferment. 

 Powdered malt and water in proper proportions are added, and in six or eight hours the diastase 

 converts the starch very largely into dextrin and maltose. The liquid is then filtered and evapo- 

 rated to the desired consistency, which varies according to the season. One oi the forms is a dense, 

 clear, light-colored amber liquid not unhke the best commercial glucose in some of its physical 

 properties. Another form is hard and not unUke a white candy in appearance. Ame has been 

 manufactured in Japan for at least two thousand years, and long before sugar was known it 

 was a favorite flavoring. Even at the present time it is sometimes used instead of sugar in 

 cooking, and it is also a favorite food adjunct for invahds. 



MALT SUGARS 

 Several malt preparations, some of them thick like syrup and others more of the con- 

 sistency of candy, are on the market. These are mixtures of dextrin and maltose coming 

 from the action of diastase on starchy materials. Many commercial products, so-called "pre- 

 digested" and "malted" products and similar goods, have this material as their basis. 



GLYCOGEN 

 Glycogen or "animal sugar" is a carbohydrate of the same chemical composition as starch, 

 but with different chemical properties. It is found in small amounts in muscular tissue, and 

 more abundantly in the liver, where it may exist in considerable quantities. It has an im- 

 portant function in nutrition, being stored as a reserve source of energy for the body. 



SWEET MATERIALS OTHER THAN SUGAR 

 Saccharin, an extremely sweet material, is not a sugar, but is of an entirely different 

 chemical structure, being a benzene compound. Its use in food products was forbidden 

 under the Federal pure-food law.(cO It is quite commonly prescribed in cases of diabetes to 

 satisfy the craving for sweets, as it is believed to be less harmful in such cases than the sugar, 

 the flavor of which it replaces. 



There are other chemical substances which are not sugars, but which have a marked sweet 

 flavor. They, like saccharin, are in no sense foodstuffs. 



COMMERCIAL GLUCOSE AND OTHER COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS 

 MADE FROM STARCH 



"Commercial glucose," "40 sugar," "80 sugar," and "commercial dextrose" are com- 

 mercial products of the hydrolysis of starch. The first is a thick liquid, rarely showing crystal- 



c U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Chem. Bui. 110. d U. S. Dept. Agr., Food Insp. Decisions 135, 138, 149. 



