[Proc. Eoy. Soc. Victokia, 32 (N.S.), Pt. II., 1920]. 



Art. XIII. — On the Synthesis of Sugar froon Formaldehyde- 

 and its Folymers, its QvMntitative Relations and its- 

 Exothermic Character. 



By ALFRED J. EWART, D.Sc, Ph.D. 



(Professor of Botanj and Plant Physiology in Melbourne University, 

 and Government Botanist). 



[Eead 6tli November, 1919]. 



la 1861 Butlerow found that on treating trioxymethyleue tri- 

 molecular formaldehyde) with hot liuie water, a sweet yellow, unfer- 

 mentable syrup, "methylenitan," was obtained. Loeb^ obtained an 

 unfermentable " formose '"' syrup by the prolonged action of lime 

 water on dilute formaldehyde, and by using magnesia obtained a 

 " methose " syrup containing fermentable sugar. Fischer2 showed 

 that all three syrups were complex mixtures, containing a acrose 

 and obtained this sugar, and (^ acrose from Barium hydrate and 

 acrolein bromide. The « acrose is optically inactive fructose, and the 

 yS acrose is inactive sorbose. 



The methods used for the preparation of sugar are mostly slow 

 ones, involving incomplete reactions, and no attempts appear to 

 have been made to determine any precise quantitative relations 

 of the reacting materials. 



In a previous paper ^ a method was described of rapidly polymeri- 

 sing formaldehyde to sugar by running dilute caustic soda into 

 a boiling weak solution of formaldehyde, containing calcium for- 

 mate. The advantages of this method are that there is a definite 

 end reaction, so that quantitative estimations are possible, that 

 the process is very rapid, requiring only a few minutes for com- 

 pletion, and that the amount of formaldehyde polymerised is very 

 large, llie residual products are calcium and sodium formates, 

 and sugars, mainly pentoses and hexoses, any methyl alcohol 

 formed boiling off. 



At low temperatures the reaction is extremely slow, and but 

 little sugar is formed, while when strong caustic soda (35-40%) is 



1. Loeh, Ber. D. Chem. Ges. 1887, Vol. 20, 142, 3039; 1888, Vol. 21, 270 ; 1880, Vol. 22, p. 470. 



2. Fisher, Ber. d. Cheni. Ges. 1894, seq. 



S. Ewai-t, Proc. Roy. Soc. of Vict., 1019, Vol. XXXI., p. 379. 



