1 Sugar is a deliciously sweet substance often used in food. Most of the world's sugar comes
from a grass called sugar-cane which is cultivated in tropical climates. This cultivation
probably originated in New
Guinea, an island in the South Pacific, about 8000 years ago: it is
fascinating that the explorer Captain Cook saw sugar-cane still growing there many centuries
later. Sugar-cane gradually spread to other nearby islands in the Pacific Ocean. Within 5
2000 years, with the migrations of some Pacific Islanders, sugar-cane moved westwards to
India. Indian merchants traded sugar-cane with China; some of the most expensive luxury
items in China were the white cakes of boiled-down sugar, or 'stone honey', imported from
India. When the Persians invaded India, they took sugar back to Persia with them as a
substitute for honey, describing it as 'a reed which makes honey without bees', and it is easy 10
to see why they kept the process of making sugar from sugar-cane a closely guarded secret.
2 It was when Persia was invaded by the Arab peoples in the seventh century that this secret
was broken open; the Arab invaders found sugar-cane being grown and learnt how sugar was
made. As Arab expansion continued, they began sugar production in other lands that they
conquered. European soldiers returning from eleventh century wars in the East brought stories 15
of the 'new spice and how delicious it was. Subsequent centuries saw a major expansion of
European trade with the East, including the importation of sugar. It was nevertheless still a
luxury item. It is recorded, for example, that sugar was available in London in 1319 at two
shillings a pound', which equates to about US$1000 a kilogram at today's prices.
3 Sugar spread into the pharmaceutical world, and was considered a valuable medicine with 20
a wide range of uses, for example as cure for serious illnesses such as tuberculosis.
Additionally, it was used to mask the bitter or unpleasant taste of some medicines, a use it
has even in the present day.

what is the origin and spread of sugar