y are made
in the chemical laboratory by synthetic methods; that is, by combining
simpler organic compounds and radicals to produce the material having
the desired flavor and odor. The various fruit flavors are definite
chemical compounds, and can be produced in the laboratory as well as in
the cells of plants. When properly made, there is no difference in
chemical composition between the two. As prepared in the laboratory,
however, traces of acids, alkalies, and other compounds, used in
bringing about the necessary chemical combination, are often present,
not having been perfectly removed. Hence it is that natural and
artificial flavors differ mainly in the impurities which the artificial
flavors may contain.

Some of the flavoring materials have characteristic medicinal
properties, as the flavor of bitter almond, which contains hydrocyanic
acid, a poisonous substance. Flavors and extracts should not be
indiscriminately used. In small amounts they often exert a favorable
influence upon the digestion of foods, and the value of some fruits is
in a large measure due to the special flavors they contain. A study of
the separate compounds which impart flavor to fruits, as the various
aldehydes, ethers, and organic salts, belongs to organic chemistry
rather than to foods. Some of the simpler compounds of which flavors are
composed may exist in entirely different form or combination in food
products; as for example, pineapple flavoring is ethyl butrate. This can
be prepared by combination of butyric acid from stale butter with
alcohol which supplies the ethyl radical. The chemical union of the two
produces the new compound, ethyl butrate, the distinctive flavoring
substance of the pineapple. Banana flavor can be made from stale
butter, caustic soda, and chloroform. None of these materials, as such,
go into the flavor, but an essential radical is taken from each. These
manufactured products, when properly made, are in every essential
similar to the flavor made by the plant and stored up in the fruit. The
plant combines the material in the laboratory of the plant cell, and the
manufacturer of essences puts together these same constituents in a
chemical laboratory. In the fruit, however, the essential oil is
associated with a number of other compounds.

CHAPTER V

SUGARS, MOLASSES, SYRUP, HONEY, AND CONFECTIONS

73. Composition of Sugars.--The term "sugar" is applied to a large
class of compounds composed of the elem