Aspartame is an artificial sweetener from the non-sugar groups that sakarida widely used for diet products or low-calorie products. Aspartame is sweeter about 180-200 times than regular sugar with the same concentration. This means that by using these sweeteners, we only need 1 / 200 times less aspartame than using regular sugar.
Aspartame is none other than the methyl esters of natural amino acids dipeptida namely aspartic acid and phenylalanine. Aspartame is found by accident by James Schlatter, a chemist at GD Searle Co. in 1965. Schlatter has unexpectedly synthesize aspartame at the time he made anti-pain medication.
Aspartame Chemical properties
Aspartame has the chemical formula C14H18N2O5 and molecular weight of 294.31 Aspartame has two functional groups that can be ionized and both there at the aspartic acid residues. At neutral pH, aspartame is in two ionized forms. Aspartame is stable maximum at pH 4.3.Aspartame at room temperature form of white powder and odorless leburnya point 248-2500C.
Why Aspartame is called Sugar With 0 Calories?
In order for us to know why aspartame is called 0-calorie sugar then let us do a simple calculation. Suppose a product bottled beverages with 330 mL of sugar requires 50 grams for a certain sweetness level in accordance with the standard drink, so by using aspartame we only need: (we use the level of sweetness of aspartame is 200 times that of regular sugar)
Grams of aspartame are required:
= 1 / 200 x 50 g
= 0.25 g
Aspartame is metabolized in the body into their constituent components namely aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol. Like other amino acids, each gram of amino acid is metabolized in the body to produce 4 calories, because we have then 0.25 g of aspartame:
Mol aspartame
= 0.25 / 294.31
= 8.5 x10-4 mol
Reaction of decomposition of aspartame into constituent:
C4H7NO4 C9H11NO2 CH3OH H2O">C14H18N2O5 3H2O 2H -> C4H7NO4 C9H11NO2 CH3OH H2O
Comparison mol aspartic acid and phenylalanine is 1:1 then the mass of each of these amino acids are:
Aspartic acid
= 8.5 x10-4 mol x 133 = 0.11 g
Phenylalanine
= 8.5 x10-4 mol x 165 = 0.14 g
Calories produced are:
= (0.11 g 0.14 g) x 4 = 1 calorie
From the above calculation can be seen that by consuming beverages using aspartame as a sweetener, we only get just 1 calorie. This is tantamount to saying calories can ignore it because that could be used aspartame as a sugar substitute with 0 calories.
