Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1894 — Glucose. [ARTICLE]

Glucose.

In view of the fact that glucose enters largely into the adulteration of sweets, it is consoling to know the product is not harmful. Common molasses is glucose, mixed with a little cane sugar, which falls to the bottom of the cask after long standing. The part of the sugar derived from cane which will not crystalline is glucose. Its non-crystallizability is a characteristic of glucose. Commercial glucose is made from corn, but it may be made from almost any sort of vegetable stuff. It is obtained from cotton rags by mixing with the rags a small quantity of sulphuric acid. Ordinary blotting-paper treated in the same way will yield glucose. Cotton rags and blottingpaper are cellulose, and cellulose is the same thing chemically as sugar, save that it contains more water in each of its molecules. The sulphuric acid takes away the extra water, and the residue is glucose. Glucose is not quite so sweet as cane sugar, but it costs only three cents a pound. So it makes a very suitable adulterant, and for this purpose it is widely employed in the manufacture of candies, jellies and syrups. It is produced in enormous quantities from maize. Cheap jellies are as a rule purely artificial products, composed of glucose, gelatine, cochineal and flavoring extracts. Much of the liquid honey on the market is merely glucose flavored. Sometimes pieces of real honey-comb are placed in the jars of allegd liquid honey to give it a genuine look. It may usually be taken for granted that honey offered for sale in this shape is counterfeit. Samples of honey which claim to be of the greatest purity are most apt to be false. What an immense fraud this is may be judged when it is considered that honey costs twenty cents a pound and glucose three cents a pound.