*2.3.1.1 Metabolism and health aspect*

Aspartame is one of the low calorie sweetener used in low, reduced calorie foods and also used in beverages. It is also a low calorie table top sweetener used in gums, breakfast cereals and dry foods. Upon breaking Aspartame produces about 4 calories of energy per gram. On prolonged heating aspartame decomposes and therefore it cannot be used for food items involving cooking and also converts into liquid on storage. The breakdown products upon ingestion are aspartic acid, phenylalanine, methanol and further breakdown products including formaldehyde, formic acid and diketopiperazine. FDA insisted that food products with aspartame should have warning in the label that the person with the rare genetic disorder phenylketonuria should avoid ingesting aspartame. Phenylketonuria is an inborn disease associated with error of metabolism that leads to attenuated metabolism of the amino acid phenylalanine. Phenylketonuria leads to behavioral problems and mental disorders. Peoples suffering from phenylketonuria will have insufficient level of enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase which is required for the breakdown of phenylalanine [1] and as a result phenyl alanine accumulates in case of people affected with phenylketonuria. The breakdown products of aspartame like methanol, phenylalanine and aspartic acid leads to headache, blurred vision, brain tumors, eye problems, memory loss and nausea [2]. The aspartic acid one of the breakdown products of aspartame leads to excitotoxin. The aspartic acid acts like neurotransmitters

**Figure 2.** *Structure of aspartame.*

stimulating the nerve cells to either damage or kills and may lead to spinal cord injury, stroke and hearing loss [3].
