Frequently asked questions
1. What is the connection between Christopher Columbus, sugar and slavery?
The crusaders were the first Europeans to encounter sugar cane, in the Middle East. Christopher Columbus then took the newly discovered plant with him on his second voyage to America (1493–96).
The Caribbean climate turned out to be ideal for growing sugar cane. From the first plantation on the island of Hispaniola, sugar cane cultivation soon spread across Latin America, and sugar became one of the first globally traded commodities. But its cultivation and trade were also one of the most important causes of the slave trade and brought with it the destruction of native civilisations.
2. Who discovered the sugar in beet?
The pharmacist and chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf discovered sugar in beet in 1747 in Berlin. Up until then sugar cane had been the only source of sugar.
Marggraf described very precisely his experiments with various kinds of beet, including sugar beet. His scientific discovery that beet sugar was completely identical to cane sugar was very important for his time.
He used alcohol to extract the sugar from the beet, but that process was very costly and unsuitable for industrial production. Marggraf was the first to use the microscope for chemical investigations. For his experiments he developed his own method for isolating sugar, which remained in use for a century.
3. What does sugar have to do with Zyklon B?
In the exhibition in the Sugar Museum, in the section on sugar refining, the by-products displayed include a can labelled “Giftgas Zyklon”, or “Zyklon poison gas”. The pesticide Zyklon B was used for mass murder in the gas chambers of the Nazi death camps.
Production of Zyklon B
When sugar is refined, molasses is left over. Zyklon B is made from vinasses, the waste product left over after fermented molasses mash has been distilled. After the vinasses has been concentrated and broken down by pyrolysis, the extracted betaine is used to produce Zyklon B.
Use of Zyklon B
As a pesticide Zyklon B is still used against insects and rodents. For people it is a deadly poison even in small doses.
The misuse of the gas to murder millions in the Nazi concentration camps was a crime of unimaginable dimensions.
4. What does insulin have to do with blood sugar?
Glucose
The sugar and starch contained in food is divided into simple sugar molecules, first in the mouth and later in the small intestine. This produces glucose (dextrose), which is the most important source of energy for brain and muscles. Glucose passes from the intestine into the blood, where it is available to the body as blood sugar. That is why every person’s blood sugar rises after eating. The dissolved sugar is transported to the organs and cells, where it is used to produce energy.
Insulin
But for sugar to enter a cell a “key” must be present, namely insulin. Insulin allows glucose to pass through the cell wall into the cell. Only there can energy be gained from the glucose. When this has occurred the blood sugar level falls again. So over the course of the day blood sugar fluctuates within certain limits.
5. Can I make my own sugar from sugar beet?
Yes, you can.
But: Children should only try this out under competent adult supervision, and safety precautions, such as wearing safety goggles and rubber gloves, must be followed.
How do you do it?
- Chop a sugar beet into small pieces.
- Boil the pieces in a saucepan of water and scoop off the froth that gathers on top.
- Pour the mixture through a sieve and collect the liquid in a container.
- Put the pieces of beet in a piece of muslin (or a tea towel) and squeeze the juice into a container.
- Add this juice to the liquid you sieved earlier.
- Dissolve about 100 grams of quicklime in 100 ml of water. Caution: quicklime is caustic, wear rubber gloves!
- Add the lime milk to the liquid and allow it to react for several minutes.
- Use a soda siphon to bubble carbon dioxide through the liquid and allow it time to react.
- The lime milk reacts with the non-sugar substances and the carbonic acid to form chalk, which settles at the bottom of the container as a white sludge.
- Use a coffee filter to filter out the sludge.
- You should now have a golden yellow liquid.
- Thicken the liquid over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until it has become a thick syrup in which sugar crystals are visible.
- The more sugar crystals there are, the better (the thicker and whiter the mixture).
- Use a centrifuge to separate the sugar crystals from the syrup, and allow the extracted sugar to dry.
- You can spread the syrup on bread.
- The residues are organic waste and can be composted.