French company Roquette Frères secured US patent 6204378 for a method of producing palatinitol sweetener from maltose. The first application was made in 1995 for a French patent. Süddeutsche Zucker AG (also called Südzucker AG) and Bayer are also active in this technology.
Abstract:
A novel method for making palatinitol comprising a first step of epimerising isomaltose under conditions enabling a mixture of .alpha.-D-glucopyranosyl-(1.fwdarw.6)-D-mannose and isomaltose to be achieved, a second step of catalytically hydrogenating the mixture, and a third step of chromatographically depleting the isomaltitol in the hydrogenated mixture to give a roughly equimolecular mixture of .alpha.-D-glucopyranosyl-(1.fwdarw.6)-D-sorbitol and .alpha.-D-glucopyranosyl-(1.fwdarw.6)-D-mannitol.
First of 4 Claims:
Process for the preparation of palatinitol, characterized in that: in a first stage, the epimerization of isomaltose is carried out under conditions which allow a mixture of .alpha.-D-glucopyranosyl (1.fwdarw.6)-D-mannose and isomaltose to be obtained, in a second stage, catalytic hydrogenation is carried out on this mixture, in a third stage, chromatographic depletion of the isomaltose in this hydrogenated mixture is carried out so as to obtain a roughly equimolecular mixture of .alpha.-D-glucopyranosyl (1.fwdarw.6)-D-sorbitol and .alpha.-D-glucopyranosyl (1.fwdarw.6)-D-mannitol.

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By GlobalDataBy Navroz Havewala, just-food.com correspondent