NATURAL SWEETENERS AND ITS USE IN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY

Natural sweeteners and artificial sweeteners are the two available sweeteners available for use in pharmaceutical industry. The sweeteners are used as excipients to improve the perception of taste and to mask the bitter taste of some drugs. The use of natural sweeteners is increasing due to their lower toxicity than the artificial ones. Natural sweeteners, especially the non-saccharide sugars are non-toxic, have low calorific value and super sweet (100-10,000 times more sweet than artificial sweeteners). Moreover, they are easily available in nature and can be consumed by the diabetic patients. The secondary metabolite responsible for sweet taste can be grouped under, dihydrochalcones, proteins, polyols, volatile oils, terpenoids, steroidal saponins, etc. They are effective at low concentrations, stable at varying temperature range, non-carcinogenic, compatible with a wide range of drug substance and other excipients in the formulation. In pharmaceutical industry, they are currently used to prepare liquid, oral preparations, prepare the syrup base, employed in coating of pills and tablets and a vehicle for many drugs. The low-calorie value helps to prevent obesity and can be easily consumed by overweight individuals. Most of the natural sweeteners are nutritive so it provides additional nutrition. But, the mixing of natural sweeteners with the substandard artificial ones needs to be controlled.