The role of xylitol in oral health

Xylitol is a naturally occurring sugar alcohol that was discovered in the 1890s by the Noble prize-winning German chemist, Professor Emil Fischer, and a French scientist, Dr MG Bertrand (Mäkinen, 2000). Their work isolated xylitol from beech chips and straw.

Xylitol is also found in low concentrations in the fibres of many fruits and vegetables, especially corn cobs and in mushrooms, berries and oats. However, this compound received very little scientific attention until 1962 when it was discovered that it was produced and excreted naturally in the human body. Xylitol is as sweet as sucrose, but contains a third fewer calories and is non cariogenic. It differs from other natural sugars and sugar alcohols (polyols) in that it contains only five carbon atoms as opposed to the usual six (Figure 1).