[Proc. Koy. Soc. Victoria, 32 (N.S.), Pt. II., 1920]. 



Art. XIII. — On the Synthesis of Sugar from Formaldehyde^ 

 and its Polymers, its Quantitative Relations and its^ 

 Exothermic Character. 



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



(Professor of Botany and Plant Physiology in Melbourne University, 

 and Government Botanist). 



[Read 6th November, 1919]. 



In 1861 Butlerow found tiiat on treating trioxymethylene tri- 

 molecular formaldehyde) with hot lime 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. Fischer^ showed 

 that all three syrups were complex mixtures, containing a acrose 

 and obtained this sugar, and /? acrose from Barium hydrate and 

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

 p 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 w;is 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. Ihe 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, w^hile when strong caustic soda (35-40%) is: 



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



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



S. Ewart, Proc. Roy. Soc. of Vict., 1919, Vol. XXXI., p. 379. 



