Mannitol Powder

About This Product

Mannitol is a six-carbon sugar alcohol, formula C6H14O6, with CAS number 69-65-8 and the European additive number E421. It occurs naturally in seaweed, mushrooms and the exudate of the manna ash, from which it takes its name, and is made by hydrogenating fructose or by fermentation. It is supplied as a white crystalline powder or granule.

What separates it from the other polyols is that it does not attract moisture. Sorbitol, its stereoisomer, is strongly hygroscopic and used precisely because it holds water; mannitol, despite the near-identical formula, is practically non-hygroscopic because of how its molecules pack in the crystal. That single property defines its applications. It can be dusted onto chewing gum to stop pieces sticking without itself absorbing moisture and going tacky, a job sorbitol cannot do. In tableting the same stability, with a clean taste and a cooling effect from its negative heat of solution, makes it a preferred diluent for chewable and orodispersible tablets. It is roughly 60 percent as sweet as sucrose, provides about 1.6 calories per gram and is non-cariogenic. Like other polyols it can be laxative at high intake.

It is used as a dusting powder for chewing gum and confectionery, in sugar-free sweets and chocolate, in chewable and orodispersible tablets, and as an anticaking and free-flow agent.

Bio Green Foods supplies mannitol powder to specification on assay, particle size, loss on drying, reducing sugars, sulphated ash and heavy metals.