Published July 1991
Sucralose is a high intensity, noncaloric sweetener having a sweetness 600 times that of sucrose. Tate & Lyle in England and McNeil Specialty Products Company, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, in the United States are developing the product jointly, and petitions for its use in some food and beverages were filed with the FDA in the United States in 1987 and 1989.
Sucralose may be synthesized from sucrose in five operating steps:
1. Sucrose is tritylated with trityl chloride in the presence of dimethylformamide and 4-methylmorpholine and the tritylated sucrose is then acetylated with acetic anhydride,
2. The resulting TRISPA (6,1',6'-tri-O-trityl-penta-O-acetylsucrose) is chlorinated with hydrogen chloride in the presence of toluene,
3. The resulting 4-PAS (sucrose 2,3,4,3',4'-pentaacetate) is heated in the presence of methyl isobutyl ketone and acetic acid,
4. The resulting 6-PAS (sucrose 2,3,6,3',4'-pentaacetate) is chlorinated with thionyl chloride in the presence of toluene and benzyltriethylammonium chloride, and
5. The resulting TOSPA (sucralose pentaacetate) is treated with methanol in the presence of sodium methoxide to produce sucralose.
The capital requirement and the production costs are significantly affected by the yields of the intermediates and product in the multistep process. This preliminary evaluation is based on yields cited in the references, i.e., 70%, 80%, 85%, 86%, and 92% for the five operating sections.
