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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Saccharin received a bad rap after studies in the 1970s linked consumption of large amounts of the artificial sweetener to bladder cancer in laboratory rats. Later, research revealed that these findings were not relevant to people. And in a complete turnabout, recent studies indicate that saccharin can actually kill human cancer cells. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Journal of Medicinal Chemistry have made artificial sweetener derivatives that show improved activity against two tumor-associated enzymes.
Journal Reference:
Silvia Bua, et. al.“A Sweet Combination”: Developing Saccharin and Acesulfame K Structures for Selectively Targeting the Tumor-Associated Carbonic Anhydrases IX and XII. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2019; DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.9b01669
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Saturday December 21 2019, @10:53PM (3 children)
Likely there are a whole host of factors that have been left out of the studies, and we don't understand what effect each of them add or subtract. Duplicate the study and you should get the same results. Alter the amounts of other factors and the results might be quite different.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 22 2019, @01:02AM (2 children)
Most likely. It would be interesting to see the results if these experiments were done with other artificial sweeteners such as sucralose, cyclamate, and maybe even aspartame. Or a mixture of them.
To the AC below
"The bitter aftertaste is because it bonds just as easily with the bitter taste receptors as the sweet ones."
Thanks. I searched and read about it. I found it interesting that combining saccharin with cyclamate helps reduce the bitter aftertaste even though both saccharin and cyclamate both individually have a bitter aftertaste. One website said it's because they trigger different taste buds associated with bitterness but each inhibits receptors from the bitter taste buds that the other triggers.
Another website said something to the extent that perhaps the nitrogen in saccharin can ionize in the presence of sodium or potassium. So perhaps saccharin isn't immediately bitter because it takes a short while to get exposed to the sodium/potassium in your body/mouth before it becomes bitter.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Sunday December 22 2019, @12:50PM (1 child)
"maybe even aspartame. "
Acesulphame K (potassium) IS Aspartame: Aspartame is the brand name.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 23 2019, @01:25AM
Aspartame [wikipedia.org]: C14H18N2O5
Ace K [wikipedia.org]: C4H4KNO4S