Mannite

Mannite is obtained from the sweet juice of the stems of the ash tree. It is also contained in beet roots and some other vegetables. Like sucrose, it crystallises, and is white and free from odour. It does not ferment with yeast. It is laxative, and it may be used in diabetes, for it is not secreted in the urine as glucose.

Levulose

Fruit sugar, or levulose, is now sold under the name of diabetin, in crystalline form, for use in diabetes, on the ground that it is not known to reappear in the urine. It can be taken freely and in considerable quantity without disordering digestion, as saccharin often does after continued use. Diabetin is sweeter than cane sugar, and has a somewhat fruity taste.

Honey

Honey is a form of sugar prepared from the cane sugar of various flowering plants gathered by bees, which convert it by hydrolysis chiefly into dextrose. They then store it in cells. Thus 11 it is really a vegetable product, although manufactured by an insect. In addition to sugar, it holds several other ingredients, principally wax, gum, pigment, and odorous materials. The sugar exists in two forms - crystallisable and non-crystallisable. The former is somewhat similar to glucose.

Honey contains, according to König: Water, 16.13; dextrose, 78.74; cane sugar, 2.69; nitrogenous matter, 1.29; ash, 0.12 per cent, besides traces of other ingredients.

Honey was more in demand for sweetening before the discovery of a method of making sugar from the sugar cane. It is a wholesome food, and is fattening when eaten with bread. In some countries - as, for example, in the Black Forest of Baden - the peasants consume it as a staple article of diet. Artificial honeycombs are now made from paraffin, stamped into cells to imitate the original, which enables the bees to devote more energy to the manufacture of honey and bestow less on the combs.

In a few instances, fortunately very rare, honey has proved poisonous owing to the bees having fed upon poisonous flowers. An epidemic of gelsemin poisoning occurred in Branchville, S. C, from this cause in which twenty persons were severely affected, three of them fatally.

Saccharin

Saccharin is a crystallisable organic-acid substance, containing, in addition to the elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, a little sulphur and nitrogen. It was introduced a few years ago as a substitute for sugar, and it is especially useful in cases of obesity, rheumatism, gout, and diabetes, when the withdrawal of sugar is followed by intense craving for it, or a refusal to eat those foods which are customarily flavoured with it. It is antiseptic, and has the property of acidifying the urine, being eliminated unaltered by the kidneys, hence it can be used medicinally in cases of pyelitis or cystitis. It may be given for months at a time without danger, if the quantity prescribed does not exceed more than one or two grains, three times a day. More than this dose may cause gastric derangement. It may be added to food in cooking, or a one-quarter grain tablet may be used to sweeten a cup of coffee.