Sugarcane was first domesticated in New Guinea around 8000 BC and spread to Southeast Asia, China, and India by 2000 BC. Early evidence of sugar production and beekeeping for honey appears in ancient Egypt around 2500 BC. Sugarcane cultivation spread from India to China by 500 BC and the Mediterranean by 300 BC via Alexander the Great's conquests. Major developments in sugar production occurred under the Gupta dynasty in India in 350 AD with crystallization, and under Arab rule starting in the 7th century as they spread cultivation throughout the Mediterranean and introduced sugar cane to Europe. Sugar production expanded globally through the 15th-18th centuries as European colonial powers established sugar cane plantations in the Americas, Asia, and

4. 9000 BC - Indications of primitive sugar production from sugar cane in New Guinea
8000 BC – Archeological evidence tells us that sugarcane was first domesticated in in New Guinea by
its inhabitants, who slowly spread their knowledge across Southeast Asia, southern China,
and India.
2500 BC – Experts agree the first evidence of beekeeping for honeyappears in the
paintings of ancient Egypt, dating from around 2500 B.C.(National Honey
Board)
800 BC – First historical reference of sugar comes from China, with the mentions of the
India’s sugarcane fields in some of their ancient surviving texts.

5. 510BC In 510 B.C. a Persian military expedition recorded finding sugarcane in that sub-
continent, and later, Alexander the Great also found it there. His Admiral,
Nearchos, is recorded as describing "a reed which makes honey without bees.
500 BC 500 BC – Indian manufacturers started making cooled sugar syrup, which was molded in large
flat bowls. This new form of sugar made it not only easier for transport, but its name
managed to live until today. It was called khanda, or on modern day, candy. Sugarcane
culture slowly spread Westward reaching Persia by 500 A.D
327Bc 327 BC - Alexander the Great discovers sugar cane, then spreads it through
Persia and introduces it in the Mediterranean.
300 BC 300 BC – First European contact with the sugar came during the reign of famous Alexander
the Great, when his returning troops from India brought back home mysterious “honey
powder”. Even with this discovery, Europe embraced sugar more than 1 thousand years later
after the end of the Crusades.
287 BC Theophrastus in 287 B.C. described it as "...honey which is in a cane", and
Dioscoredes described it as "...a kind of concentrated honey, called saccharon,
found in canes in India and Arabia, like in consistence to salt, and brittle to be
broken between the teeth
200 Bc 200 BC - Chinese Emperor T’ai Tsung sends a successful scientific mission to
study sugar manufacturing from sugar cane in India. Asian traders then bring
sugar to the Middle East and westward into Africa.

6. 350 BC Originally, people chewed sugarcane raw to extract its
sweetness.Indians discovered how to crystallize sugar during
the Gupta dynasty, around 350 AD

7. 400 400 AD – Even though they could produce large quantities of sugar,
majority of the Indian population preferred honey to sweeten their
food. That changed in 5th century AD when Imperial Guptas found the
way to turn sugarcane juice into granulated crystals. This new form of
sugar was much easier to transport, which made it one of the primary
trade ingredients of India.
500 500s – Buddhist monks who traveled from indie to neighboring
countries introduced Sugar to China. Similarly, Indian sailors spread the
world of this new amazing food ingredient across Indian Ocean.
600 600 – China established its first sugarcane plantations by using
knowledge that they learned in India.
641 AD 641 - The Arabs learn to cultivate sugar cane after conquering Persia, and
spread it to East Africa and southern and eastern Mediterranean. Using irrigation,
sugar cane is then cultivated in Cyprus, Egypt, Morocco, Sicily and Spain, resulting
in the first major European sugar source
642 When Persians invaded India in 642, Persians learned how to grow sugarcane and
how to make sugar from it
710 Sugar cane was introduced to Egypt after their defeat by the Arabs in
710 A.D

8. 801 801 – First European beet sugar factory was established by
Franz Karl Achard in Germany. This enabled Europe to start
producing sugar in vast quantities, making it more popular and
accessible.
950 Then, crossing the Mediterranean to Southern Spain by 755
A.D. and to Sicily in 950 A.D., it progressed along the southern
littoral of the Mediterranean, where in time it reached the
islands off the Atlantic coast of Africa
9th and
10th
century
– Arab Agricultural Revolution represents a key point in the
history of sugar. It was then when Muslim countries in Middle
East and Asia adopted sugar production of India, and enabled
European countries to come in contact with this incredible food
substance.

9. 11th-13th
centuries
– Sugar returned to Europe to the Crusades, when soldiers brought back to
Europe mysterious “sweet salt”. This discovery started the rise of the Venetian
and Mediterranean trading fleets that soon brought vast amounts of knowledge
and new materials to Europe, kick-starting the era of Renaissance and later
period of so-called Golden Age of Discovery.
1400 By the 1400s, Spanish and Portuguese explorers expanded sugar’s presence to
the eastern Atlantic as they introduced cane sugar to the islands off the African
coast
1425 Henry the Navigatorintroduced cane to Madeira in 1425, while the Spanish,
having eventually subdued the Canary Islands, introduced sugar cane to them
1493 In 1493, on his second voyage, Christopher Columbus carried sugarcane
seedlings to the New World, in particular Hispaniola
1500 1500s – First sugarcane plantations were formed in Central America.
1747 1747 – Chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf uses alcohol to extract sugar
from beets, but his methods did not lend themselves to economical industrial-
scale production
1751 1751 – Sugar cane is introduced to the United States when Jesuit missionaries
bring it to New Orleans, Louisiana.
1812 1812 - Partly in response to a British blockade of France that prevented sugar
cane imports from the Caribbean, Benjamin Delessert invents a sugar
extraction process from beets suitable for industrial use in France

10. 1878 –
Saccharin
(benzoic sulfinide) is accidentally invented by Constantin Fahlberg, a chemist working on
coal tar derivatives in a laboratory at the Johns Hopkins University.
1879 – E.H. Dyer opens the first successful sugar beet factory in the United States.
1957 - Richard O. Marshall and Earl R. Kooi invent the production of High Fructose Corn
Syrup (HFCS)
1965 - Aspartame was accidentally invented by James M. Schlatter, a chemist working for G.D.
Searle & Company.
1974 - The FDA grants aspartame approval for restricted use in dry foods, only to reverse its
decision the following year when a psychiatrist claimed it caused brain damage in animals.
1975 - HFCS begins to be rapidly introduced into many processed foods and soft drinks in the
U.S.
1976 - Sucralose is invented by scientists from Tate & Lyle.
1981 1981 – Aspartame again receives FDA approval.
1993 1993 – Florida Crystals launches natural cane sugar product line
1998 1998 – Florida Crystals becomes the only producer of certified organicsugar in the U.S.,
marketed through the Florida Crystals® brand.
2008 2008 – Florida Crystals® Natural and Organic sugar become the first American sugar to be
certified Carbonfree®

11. 19th
century
– Sugar was no longer considered to be only “popular”, but
it was necessary food ingredient (for the first time normal
diet included teas, coffee, jams, candies, chocolates,
processed foods, etc.). Slave trade peaked in the 1st half of
that century, but was reduced after the end of the American
Civil War (1861–1865).
20th
century
– Sugar is commonplace item that is used regularly by
everyone.