Intrinsic viscosities and other solution properties of sugars and their possible relation to sweetness

The intrinsic viscosities, apparent molar volumes, apparentspecific volumes and apparent solution parachors of selectedsugars were determined with the aim of investigating the possiblerelationship of these solution properties to the published sweetnessvalues of sugars. For a given sugar, there is no clear relationshipbetween its intrinsic viscosity and other solution propertiesstudied. The values of apparent specific volume and intrinsicviscosity differ greatly even though both parameters reflectthe amount of water surrounding 1 g of the solute. There isalso no observable correlation between the intrinsic viscositiesand the literature values on the relative sweetness of sugars.The intrinsic viscosity of a solute molecule reflects its extentof hydration. It is greatly influenced by the conformation andconfiguration of the sugar molecules. Equatorial OH groups aremore favourable for hydration than the axial OH groups. Thus,the more OH groups in the equatorial position, the higher theintrinsic viscosity.