Natural chemicals are chemicals which come from plants or animals used a both raw materials and additive materials in making process of a food. One example of natural chemicals which is usually used in foods is celery oil consisting of compounds of limonene (70-80%), sesquiterpenes - selinene (10%), and humulene. Besides, the special aroma of the celery id causedby the content of phthalides compound.
Basically, both natural and artificial chemicals used in foods can be classified based their function or uses. In this case, those chemicals are classified into chemicals functioning as dyestuff, sweetener, flavor and preservative substance.
1. Natural Chemicals as Dyestuff
In everyday life, we often find various foods and drinks having interested colors which can rise our appetites to consume them.
Basically, raw or main materials to produce a food or drink have contained the own dyes. However, actually the natural colors containing in the foodstuffs less to be used for producing the more interested foods or drinks. Hence, to produce the interested colors, usually an amount of additive chemicals are added which can upgrade the color quality of a given food or drink. Those additive chemicals used to upgrade the color quality of a given food or drink some are natural chemicals.
In this nature there’re chemicals or materials which can be used as natural dyestuff and most of them are obtained from plants. The following is explanation about some natural chemicals which are usually used as dyestuff in foods or drinks.
a. Turmeric
Turmeric is a kind of plants classified into Zingiberaceae. Turmeric are extensively found in Asia, especially Southeast Asia and it is widely used by Indonesian or other most of Asian as flavor and traditional medicine or “jamu”.
Turmeric contains a yellow agent substance called curcumine. Hence, turmeric is usually used to give yellow color in foods or cooking such as rice, curry, meat, fish, egg, etc.
b. Carrot
Carrot is one tubers widely used as vegetable and natural dyestuff. It is because carrot can produce the orange color. The orange color of the carrot is produced by the content of a substance called betha-carotene.
c. Watery Pandanus and “Suji” Leaves
Watery Pandanus and “Suji” leaves can be used as agent of green color in foods. It is because those 2 kinds of plants contain chlorophyll which is safe for human beings. The watery pandanus and suji leaves are widely used for giving green color in many traditional foods. For example, foods using the suji and watery pandanus leaves as dyestuff are “dadar gulung”, “moci” and pandanus sponge cake.
d. Red Chili Pepper
Besides for obtaining the hot taste in a food, the red chili pepper is also used to produce red color in foods. The reds color produced by the chili pepper is widely used in cooking with the raw materials such as meat, egg, soybean curd, tempe, and fishes.
e. Cocoa Tree
Cocoa tree is a kind of plants having the Latin name Theobroma cacao. The seed of this tree which has been processed to become powdery or concentrated liquid can be used for giving brown in several kinds of foods such various cakes, candies, margarines, and milks.
2. Natural Chemicals as Sweetener
The sweet taste is a taste which is like by peoples. Hence, there are many foods made using the sweet taste. What’s something making a sweet food? Basically, the sweet taste in foods is caused by the presence of sugar in the feedstuffs of the foods.
Although there are some feedstuffs containing sugar, but the obtain the sweet taste which appropriates the appetite of someone, then usually we need to add some materials functioning as the sweetener. In this case, the sweetener usually used to create or add the sweet taste on foods is sugar. Various candies, cakes, and candied fruits are examples of food using sugar as the sweetener. Besides that, various drinks such as tea, coffee, milk and essence of fruits usually use also sugar as the sweetener.
a. Sugar from Sugar Cane
Sugar from Sugar Cane is obtained by extracting the sugar cane stem.
In the process of making this kind of sugar, the sugar cane stem is extracted by method of grinding it for being obtained its essence. The essence of sugar cane contains approximately 50% of water, 15% of sugar, and 35% of other substances. The essence of the sugar cane then is separated from other substances by method of settling waste through liming process, that is settling waste by using calcium in the form of limestone. After undergoing the liming process, the water (from sugar cane) is converted to become the crystal sugar through the step of evaporating, boiling, and crystallizing.
The sugar from sugar cane found in markets be in various sizes.
b. Coconut Sugar
Coconut sugar or it is often known as Javanese sugar is sugar obtained from the water (essence) of coconut processed further, so the brown sugar in the certain shapes is produced.
c. Sugar from Sugar Palm
Sugar from sugar palm is obtained from processing the water (essence) of sugar palm incision. Basically, the process of making this sugar is relatively similar to the process in making coconut sugar, but from the sugar produced is rather different. The sugar from sugar cane is redder than the coconut sugar. Besides that, the taste of the sugar from sugar cane is rather sweeter than the coconut sugar.
3. Natural Chemicals as Flavor
The use of flavors in foods purposes to reinforce the taste and aroma of foods, so it can rise the deliciousness of the foods. The following are some examples of natural chemicals which are usually used as flavor in foods.
a. Table Salt
Table salt is one of natural flavors for foods prepared from the processing of seawater. Most of the native Indonesia’s cooking use the table salt as the main flavor. The use of table salt as flavor is caused by the salt is able to rise the taste of foods, so the foods become more delicious and luscious.
b. Turmeric
Besides it can be used as dyestuff , turmeric is widely also used as flavor for foods. The use of the turmeric as flavor functions to remove the putridity of foods such as meat, fishes, and eggs.
c. Celery
To rise taste and aroma for some kinds of cooking mainly cooking with broth such as “soto (a kind of soupe)”, “lontong kari”, and “baso (meatball)” usually use the slices of celery leaves.
d. Onions
Some kinds of onions such as the red onion, white onion, and Bombay onion are natural materials which are widely used as flavor. Besides of their unique aromas, the use of onions in cooking rise the quality of the taste.
4. Natural Chemicals as Preservative Agent
A preservative agent is used in a food in order to the food can be possible to be consumed in long time. Imagine if there are no preservative agents in foods, may be every day there will be removed spoiled foods in many trucks from supermarkets or food factories. However, through the long thinking processes, and it is followed by experiments using the steps carefully and precisely, so humans obtain methods to preserve foods, that is by using preservative agents.
c. Artificial Chemicals
The use of natural chemicals in foods has some weaknesses, among others are as follows.
For a food production in large quantity, it is required the large natural substances. Meanwhile, the existence of the natural substances is very limited.
The coloring quality using the natural substances is still limited. It means, they can only produce several colours only and the colours are fad able when in processing foods.
Foods preserved using the natural materials can’t be durable in a very long time.
Because of the weaknesses for the natural materials,
so based on chemical engineering, it’s made artificial chemicals which
can be used as dyestuff, sweetener, flavor, and preservative agent.
Besides for preventing the overweight and the infection of diabetes mellitus, some artificial sweeteners used by peoples to replace the function of natural sugar. It is because economically the artificial sweetener senses sweeter than sugar.
Some examples of artificial sweeteners which are usually used in foods among others are saccharine, sorbitol, cyclamate, P-400, and aspartame. The following is the ratio of relative sweetness degree of sugar and some artificial sweeteners to sucrose.
1. Natural Chemicals as Dyestuff
The artificial dyestuffs are required to add colours or create a given colour in foods so the foods becomes interested. 
The artificial dyestuffs are also called the synthetic dyestuffs because they are produced from synthesis for chemical compounds through chemical engineering. The examples of foods using the artificial dyestuffs among others are candies, candied fruits, and syrup. Generally, the kind of foods or cooking given by an artificial dyestuff will look to be more interested. It’s because an artificial dyestuff can produce the certain color variations which are closely impossible to be made using the natural dyestuffs.
Artificial chemicals which are usually used as dyestuff for foods among others are tartrazine, carmoisine, quinoline, yellow poncean 4R, sunset yellow, patent blue V, brilliant black BN, and brilliant blue FCF.
2. Artificial Chemicals as Sweetener
Basically, sugar which is often used by us in everyday life contains carbohydrate which consists of sucrose, lactose, maltose, glucose, and fructose are separately found out in the form of mixture of in another in a given material. 
Sugar compounds have the high content calorie. Hence, when we consume foods containing the compounds excessively, the excess of calorie will be stored in the form of fat and the body undergoes overweight. Besides, consuming sugar excessively also causes the infection of diabetes mellitus. To overcome the problem, now there are found low-calorie natural sweeteners which can reduce the risk to be infected by diabetes mellitus. Besides for preventing the overweight and the infection of diabetes mellitus, some artificial sweeteners used by peoples to replace the function of natural sugar. It is because economically the artificial sweetener senses sweeter than sugar.
Some examples of artificial sweeteners which are usually used in foods among others are saccharine, sorbitol, cyclamate, P-400, and aspartame. The following is the ratio of relative sweetness degree of sugar and some artificial sweeteners to sucrose.
3. Artificial Chemicals as Flavor
An artificial flavor which are most often used in everyday life is MSG (monosodium glutamat). The artificial flavor of MSG is more known as “vetsin” (vetsin=the Indonesian word of MSG). MSG or vetsin is made of syrup from sugar refining fermented using microccocus glutamicus bacteria.
The use of MSG in foods can rise or create the deliciousness or tastiness in the foods. Usually, foods using this MSG are salty, sour, and hot foods such as baso (meatball), “soto”, “gulai”, and “rendang” (meat simmered in spices and coconut milk).
4. Artificial Chemicals as Preservative Agent
Similar to dyestuffs, sweeteners, and flavors, the quantity of natural preservative agents are also limited in the nature. Besides, the quality of the natural preservative agents is relatively not good compared with artificial preservative agents. Hence, food and drink producers use some artificial chemicals functions as preservative agent.
D. Effects in using artificial chemicals
Generally, the use of addictive chemicals in foods both natural chemicals and artificial can give any usefulness or advantage for us. However, the use of artificial chemicals excessively in foods can also arise any negative effect or detriment for us. The following is explanation about the usefulnesses or advantages from using additive substances in foods, the detriments from using artificial chemicals, and methods of anticipating the detriments.
1. The usefulnesses of additive substances in foods
Basically, all kinds of foods can react with oxygen and it cause some consequences such as decomposition and the growth of fungi. As the result, the colour of the foods changes, there is arisen any unpleasant smell, the nutrient of the foods decreases, and moreover it can cause diseases if the are consumed. However, by using a certain chemicals, both natural and artificial, the unpleasant consequences can be avoided, reduced, or “removed”.
2. The detriments of using artificial chemicals
Besides giving some usefulnesses or advantages, the use of additive substances in foods also causes some detriments, among others are they can cause the health disorders for humans, especially for artificial materials.
The use of artificial chemicals in foods doesn’t exceed the certain limitations. It’s because generally the artificial chemicals can cause any disorder in our body organs. For example, consuming aspartame excessively can cause the occurrence hardening to brain and vertebral column marrow. Besides, aspartame is also believed to be able to cause lupus (SLE= systematic lupus erythematosus).
3. Overcoming problems of using artificial chemicals
After we know the detriments or problems of using additive chemicals, especially artificial dyestuffs, sweeteners, preservative agents in foods, so we certainly do not want to feel them, don’t you? Hence, you must known the methods to overcome the problems. Meanwhile, the methods to overcome them, among the others are as follows:
-Check the package of foods in order to we can sure that the foods are packed orderly and closed tightly so they are kept from any reaction with air and kept from bacteria and germs.
-Check the expiration date listed on the food packaging. This expiration date is a date printed on the packaging of food and drug products that indicates the time after which they should not be used.
-See the material composition (ingredient), be sure that the additive materials found in the foods are safe materials and the quantity of the materials is not in the greatest portion in the foods.
-Check that the foods have been listed in Health Department of Indonesia Republic and they are licensed by POM (“Pengawas Obat dan Makanan”).
-Reduce the use of additive substances.
Photo Sources:
Ma own photos from ma biology presentation at school
Best Regards,
Sherly Ok ^^
