Comments on: Natural vs Artificial flavours http://niallohiggins.com/2009/05/13/natural-vs-artificial-flavoursnatural-vs-artificial-flavours/ The website of Niall O'Higgins: A few, immature words Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:15:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: David Cathcart http://niallohiggins.com/2009/05/13/natural-vs-artificial-flavoursnatural-vs-artificial-flavours/comment-page-1/#comment-518 David Cathcart Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:00:51 +0000 http://niallohiggins.com/?p=452#comment-518 I believe artificial flavors are often looked down upon because it is uneconomical for products to build complex flavors artificially. I.e. things using artificial flavors to produce a banana taste do not taste exactly like a banana mainly because they just use one or a few of the key esters to produce this flavor, whereas there are well over 30 different esters in a banana that produce the flavor. I don't know the common modes of synthesizing artificial flavors today but I would suspect they could produce racemic mixtures of the desired chemicals where only a percentage of the output is the desired chemical and the rest is its mirror image. I believe artificial flavors are often looked down upon because it is uneconomical for products to build complex flavors artificially. I.e. things using artificial flavors to produce a banana taste do not taste exactly like a banana mainly because they just use one or a few of the key esters to produce this flavor, whereas there are well over 30 different esters in a banana that produce the flavor. I don’t know the common modes of synthesizing artificial flavors today but I would suspect they could produce racemic mixtures of the desired chemicals where only a percentage of the output is the desired chemical and the rest is its mirror image.

]]> By: Praveen Paritosh http://niallohiggins.com/2009/05/13/natural-vs-artificial-flavoursnatural-vs-artificial-flavours/comment-page-1/#comment-359 Praveen Paritosh Thu, 14 May 2009 07:47:54 +0000 http://niallohiggins.com/?p=452#comment-359 Amyl Acetate is the same, the question is what else comes along with it. Fruits have a large number of ingredients whose effects Chemistry and Medicine has a very poor understanding of. We have evolved to co-exist with a small subset of what is edible on this planet. This evolutionary symbiosis makes me believe that the natural edible thing (say, fruit) is on the average a good idea. Amyl Acetate is the same, the question is what else comes along with it. Fruits have a large number of ingredients whose effects Chemistry and Medicine has a very poor understanding of.

We have evolved to co-exist with a small subset of what is edible on this planet. This evolutionary symbiosis makes me believe that the natural edible thing (say, fruit) is on the average a good idea.

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