Disclaimer: The findings discussed are lab based and further studies need to be done.

As research into maple products expands, new discoveries are constantly made within the field. A new discovery of maple is that it could have liver-protecting properties. A recent study compared rats that were given 20% maple syrup to rats that were given 20% sugar mix syrup (water, 33%; sucrose, 66.2%; glucose 0.5%; and fructose 0.3%). The experiment looked at how this affected certain molecules related to metabolism within the liver.

The findings were that the maple syrup had the ability to reduce ammonia formation. While small amounts of ammonia are found in human blood and are considered safe, too much can cause liver damage. Thus, these results showed that there was a clear liver-protecting effect.