Sweetener Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Sweetener - Assignment Example In China people derived it from a grassy plant called â€Å"Saccharum†, in Hindustan Peninsula (India) from palm juice, in Canada from maple, in Poland from birch juice. The sugar that we know today came from India. It is believed that Indians some 3000 years ago invented sugar from cane. The Indians collected juice of cane, boiled it until the formation of brown crystalline grains. These grains in Sanskrit were called â€Å"sarkara†. The name sugar in different languages came from the original Sanskrit name. Thus, in Arabic – Sukkar, in Turkish – Seker, in Latin – saccharum, in Italian – zucchero, in German – Zucker, in Russian – Skhar, and in English – Sugar. In 327 B.C. the warriors of Alexander the great entered the Indian land. Their attention was attracted to the strange white colored solid material with a sweet taste. Onisikrit, the Greek historian of that time, who accompanied Alexander the great, wrote about the fact that in India; a cane produces honey without bees. Seventh century Arab expansion revealed Indian recipe of sugar production. Arabs brought the sugar cane from India and began to cultivate in Middle East. Arab established sugar production in North America and Spain as their expansion spread. West Europeans came to know about sugar during 11th century Crusade. Later West European trade with the East introduced sugar to the Europeans. Sugar was an extraordinarily expensive product at that time. For example, in 1319 in London, in today’s currency it cost $ 100 for one kilogram. In the 15th century sugarcane made its voyage to the New world, thus becoming one of few plants that came from Europe to America. It is recorded that in 1493, Columbus took sugar cane plants to grow in the Caribbean, and thus established a whole period of sugarcane plantation network. Caribbean islands became a real paradise for Indian sugarcane. Plantation supporting required a lot of workers. This also established export of 900,000 slaves from Africa during 1701 to 1810 just to support plantations in Jamaican and Barbados. Massive sugarcane plantation resulted power struggle among leading world powers of that time to take control of West Indies. In 1674, the Netherlands surrendered New York (at that time was called New Amsterdam) to England in exchange of sugar plant ownership in Suriname. In a 1673, France was ready to leave Canada to the UK in exchange for the return of Guadeloupe. Necessity is the mother of invention, and it dictated to find an alternative of expensive sugarcane â€Å"sugar† in Western Europe. Way back in 1575, French botanist Oliver de Serres tried to draw attention to the high sugar content in sugar beet, however, only in 1747, German chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf managed to extract sugar from sugar beets. He presented a report about this discovery to the Berlin Academy of Science. During the life of Marggraf, his discovery did not get the ne cessary attention. In 1786, Charl Achard, French by birth, one of Marggraf’ student initiated agricultural experimental work of cultivation near Berlin. His goal was to learn how to grow the most sugary beet that could be used for sugar production. In January 1799, Charl Achard presented the first significant sample of sugar beet that weighed about 4 kg to the Prussian king Frederick William III. In his explanatory note to the King, he mentioned that by replacing sugarcane â€Å"sugar† by sugar beet â€Å"sugar† the country would save a considerable amount of foreign currency and create jobs for the locals. In 1802, with help from the government, Charl Achard, built the first plant in the estate of Kunren of Prussia for the production of sugar from sugar