Jinan: A new functional sugar—“Healtang” L-Arabinose—has made its formal debut on the China market, Jinan Shengquan Healtang Biotech Co Ltd announced on September 21.

According to Tang Yilin, president of Jinan Shengquan Healtang Biotech Co Ltd, L-Arabinose is a kind of rare healthy sugar. The company spent three years and 3 million yuan developing it, with the joint efforts of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The new sugar food is extracted from plant hemicelluloses such as corn bran, corn cob and fruit peel. As a low-calorie sweetener and inhibitor of sucrose, it is able to be widely used in many fields, including food, beverage, health care products and pharmaceuticals, Tang said.

Jinan Shengquan Healtang Biotech Co Ltd, in cooperation with the Chemistry Institute of the Chinese Academy of Science, has become the world’s largest production base for L-Arabinose，with an annual production capacity of 1,000 tons. L-Arabinose was approved as a novel food by the World Health Organization (WHO) in June 2008.

According to a WHO survey,, people who regularly eat high-sugar foods live 10-20 years shorter than those who eat a normal diet. In China, there are currently 70 million people with diabetes and 195 million people with hyperglycemia.

Editor Li Jing

By Wang Qian (China Daily Shandong Bureau)