| MadSci Network: Botany |
The Winterfresh gum package lists the ingredients as Sugar, Gum Base, Dextrose, Corn Syrup , Natural And Artificial Flavors, Softeners, Aspartame, Acesulfame K, Bht To Maintain Freshness, and Blue Lake 1. Dextrose is another name for glucose. Blue lake 1 is a dye. Aspartame and Acesulfame K are artificial sweeteners. The Wrigley Spearmint package lists the ingredients as Sugar, Gum Base, Corn Syrup, Dextrose, Softeners, Natural Flavors, and Bht to Maintain Freshness. The Wrigley website says they get their mint flavors from peppermint and spearmint plants. The exact flavor ingredients might be a trade secret. As Wrigley does, a lot of manufacturers protect their formulas and just list "artificial flavors" or "natural flavors". You could contact Wrigley for more info (http://www.winterfresh.com/html.php) Spearmint oil is distilled mainly from the leaves of two species, spearmint (Mentha spicata) and Scotch spearmint (Mentha x gracilis). Peppermint oil is distilled from peppermint (Mentha x piperita). I suspect that Winterfresh gum contains more than just peppermint and spearmint because those are natural flavors, and the package says Winterfresh also has artificial flavors. Some mint candies contain wintergreen oil, which is methyl salicylate. It was originally obtained from the wintergreen plant (Gaultheria procumbens) but now is usually artificially synthesized. I don't know if Winterfresh gum contains Wintergreen oil or not but it might. References Wrigley Winterfresh gum ingredients Wrigley Spearmint Gum Ingredients Mint Production: What Goes into That Great Wrigley Mint Taste What It Takes to Make Wrigley Gum? Mints - Mentha species Methyl salicylate
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