Constantin Fahlberg was born in Tambov, in central Russia, in 1850. In 1878, Fahlberg was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Ira Rensen at Johns Hopkins, analyzing the chemical compounds constituting coal tar. One evening, he noticed the sweet taste, and realized that the cause of the taste was the benzoic sulfimide that he had been analyzing that day. Fahlberg gave the compound the name “Saccharin.”
Fahlberg and Remsen published articles on saccharin in 1879 and 1880. By 1884, Fahlberg was working on his own in New York City, and he applied for patents claiming methods of producing saccharin. Two years later, Fahlberg began production of the substance in a factory in Germany. Fahlberg grew wealthy, and Remsen became frustrated because he did not receive credit for the substance produced in his laboratory. Remsen considered Fahlberg a “scoundrel,” but Remsen’s hands weren’t the ones with the saccharin on them after a day in the laboratory.
In 1907, the FDA began investigating saccharin as a result of the Pure Food and Drug Act. Harvey Wiley was the director of the bureau of chemistry of the FDA at the time, and considered saccharin an illegal substitution of a valuable ingredient, by a less valuable ingredient. Wiley told President Theodore Roosevelt that anyone who had eaten saccharin had been deceived, because saccharin was “totally devoid of food value and extremely injurious to health.” But Roosevelt was a consumer of saccharin, and responded angrily, “Anybody who says saccharin is injurious to health is an idiot.” Wiley’s career did not recover.
Fahlberg died in 1910, and never saw how popular his discovery became. It was not until World War I, when there was a sugar shortage, that the use of saccharin became widespread. Due to the difficulty of importing sugar from the West Indies, the British Saccharin Company was founded in 1917 to produce saccharin.
The popularity of saccharin grew again in the 1960s and 1970s among dieters, because saccharin was known to be a calorie-free sweetener. In the United States, saccharin became a popular coffee sweetener sold as “Sweet’n Low.”
In 1977, the FDA attempted to completely ban the substance based on studies demonstrating that the substance caused bladder cancer in rats, but the public opposed the ban. Ultimately, the product was required to carry a warning. The requirement was rescinded in 2000 when new research concluded that humans reacted differently than rats.
Today saccharin is used to sweeten drinks, candies, baked goods, tobacco products, excipients, and as a masking agent in medicines. Since saccharin’s discovery by Fahlberg as the first artificial sweetener, additional sweeteners have been developed including aspartame (Nutrasweet, Equal); steviol glycoside (Stevia), and sucralose (Splenda). In 2024, global sales of artificial sweeteners was over $25 billion.
PSA: Lead acetate also tastes sweet, but is highly toxic. So wash your hands well before you leave a chemistry laboratory, and wear personal protective equipment when analyzing unknown chemicals.