Which one of the following is an example of artificial sweetner?

Solution

Chemistry ma’am · 3 steps

Sort each name into its family first: sweetener, medicine, or a sugar that nature already makes.

1. What counts. An artificial sweetener is a man-made compound that tastes sweet but adds almost no calories. Natural sugars like sucrose or lactose do not count, even though they are sweet.

   Option	What it is	Used as
   Bithional	a phenolic compound added to soaps	antiseptic
   Alitame	a synthetic dipeptide-based compound, about 2000 times sweeter than cane sugar	artificial sweetener
   Salvarsan	an arsenic-based drug made by Paul Ehrlich	antimicrobial (treatment of syphilis)
   Lactose	milk sugar, a disaccharide of glucose and galactose	natural sugar, not artificial

2. About alitame. Alitame is more heat-stable than aspartame, so it can be used in cooked food. Its drawback is that the sweetness is hard to control in food.
3. So. Only (b), alitame, is an artificial sweetener.

The idea to keep. Learn the artificial sweeteners as one set: saccharin, aspartame, sucralose and alitame. If a name is not on that list, check whether it is a drug, an antiseptic or a natural sugar.

Answer from the NTA final answer key. Solution by PrepWiser.