Alitame, structure

Fig-1 Chemical structures of the intense sweeteners saccharin, sodium cyclamate, acesulfame-K, aspartame, alitame, dulcin, sucralose, and neohesperidin dihydrochalcone. 

Acesulfame potassium, one of the most recently approved sweeteners, is proving to be extremely popular in soft drinks because it has little aftertaste. Sucralose, another recently approved sweetener, is particularly useful in baked goods because of its stability at high temperatures. Alitame, marketed in some countries under the name Adame, is not approved for sale in the United States. It is some 2000 times as sweet as sucrose and, like acesufame-K, has no aftertaste. Of the five synthetic sweeteners listed in Table 21.2, only sucralose has clear structural resemblance to a carbohydrate, although it differs dramatically in containing three chlorine atoms. Aspartame and alitame are both dipeptides. 

In order to develop an enzymatic method to S5mthesize D-alanine N-alkyl amide, which is found in the structure of an artificial sweetener, alitame (L-a-aspartyl-N-(2,2,4,4-tetramethyl-3-thietanyl)-D-alanine amide), we screened microorganisms for an enzyme that catalyzes o-stereospecific amino acid amide hydrolysis [1]. 

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