Marty Jopson

The sweetest chemical so far discovered goes by the name of lugduname and ranks about 250,000 times sweeter than sucrose

What these sugar-free sugar substitutes have in common is that they all bear some structural resemblance to sucrose itself. It therefore comes as no surprise that our taste buds detect them as sweet, as they all possess the key to the sweetness lock.

Saccharina latissima, or sugar kelp as it is commonly known.

If you pause for a moment and scratch the surface, though, the gleam of fascinating science shines through.

The sweetest chemical so far discovered goes by the name of lugduname and ranks about 250,000 times sweeter than sucrose.

Instead you could turn to glycyrrhizin, found in the woody roots of Glycyrrhiza glabra, more commonly called the liquorice plant, and used in the production of liquorice sweets.

an artificial sweetener from a natural source is stevia, or

more precisely the steviol glycoside group of chemicals derived from the South American sugarleaf herb.

causative molecule in chillies, capsaicin

hydroxy-alpha-sanshool