Artificial sweeteners sweetness

Artificial sweeteners are a billion dollar per year industry The primary goal is of course to maxi mize sweetness and minimize calories We II look at the following three sweeteners to give us an over view of the field... 

Sucralose has the structure most similar to su crose Galactose replaces the glucose unit of sucrose and chlorines replace three of the hydroxyl groups Sucralose is the newest artificial sweetener having been approved by the U S Food and Drug Adminis tration in 1998 The three chlorine substituents do not dimmish sweetness but do interfere with the ability of the body to metabolize sucralose It there fore has no food value and IS noncaloric... 

Texture also influences the evaluation of taste. Sweetness in a Hquid is associated with body or viscosity. An artificially sweetened beverage that lacks body, therefore, may be rated quaUtatively lower than one equally sweet but containing sucrose. 

Some peptides have special tastes. L-Aspartyl phenylalanine methyl ester is very sweet and is used as an artificial sweetener (see Sweeteners). In contrast, some oligopeptides (such as L-ornithinyltaurine HQ. and L-oriuthinyl-jB-alariine HQ), and glycine methyl or ethyl ester HQ have been found to have a very salty taste (27). 

Some proteins display rather exotic functions that do not quite fit the previous classifications. Monellin, a protein found in an African plant, has a very sweet taste and is being considered as an artificial sweetener for human consumption. Resilin, a protein having exceptional elastic properties, is found in... 

Different optical enantiomers of amino acids also have different properties. L-asparagine, for example, tastes bitter while D-asparagine tastes sweet (see Figure 8.3). L-Phenylalanine is a constituent of the artificial sweetener aspartame (Figure 8.3). When one uses D-phenylalanine the same compound tastes bitter. These examples clearly demonstrate the importance of the use of homochiral compounds. 

The Ekow Plus has two kinds of fruit schnapps in it, like twin Playmates apple and peach. The staff, wearing tight white jersey outfits, was sweet, too, but it was artificial sweetener. 

Aspartame is the most successful and widely used artificial sweetener. It is roughly 100 times as sweet as cane sugar. It is methyl ester of dipeptide formed from aspartic acid and phenylalanine. Use of aspartame is limited to cold foods and soft drinks because it is unstable at cooking temperature. 

Artificial sweeteners have also been developed to give the taste of sweetness without the calories. These chemicals have sweetness many times that of sugar so they sell for high prices as low-calorie sweeteners. Many artificial flavors have also been developed to replace natural biological flavors. In all cases we search for processes that convert inexpensive raw materials into chemicals that taste or smell like natural chemicals, either by producing the same chemical synthetically or by producing a different chemical that can replace the natural chemical. 

Various studies of sorbitol in solution formulations have been reported [44-48]. Sorbitol is readily soluble and compatible with alcohol, syrup, and other polyols. It can be used with sugar solutions and artificial sweeteners to improve body, mouth feel, and sweetness characteristics. It is used with glycerin or propylene glycol to alleviate undesirable tastes. 

Most of the food and feed additives are commoditized. This is also the case for the artificial sweeteners. The main products are Saccharin (550), Aspartame (Canderel, 200), Acesulfam K (Sunnett, 200), and Cyclamate (35). The figures in brackets are the sweetness intensity, whereby sucrose = 1. Sucra-lose, discovered in the 1980s by Tate Lyle, now taken over by Johnson Johnson s formidable marketing machine, is enjoying a revival as Spenda. 

Aspartame, discovered by Mazur in 1969 (5), is 200 times sweeter than sucrose. Aspartame has a large commercial market as an artificial sweetening agent. It is apparent that the sweetness exhibited by aspartame requires amino (AH, electropositive) and carboxyl (B, electronegative) groups of aspartic acid moiety and the hydrophobic side chain (X) of the phenylalanine moiety (4). The sweetness of aspartame is exhibited by the trifunctional units AH, B, and X. It is thought that when the trifunctional units of aspartame, X, AH, and B, fit the corresponding receptor sites, a sweet taste is produced. 

A variety of different artificial sweeteners have been approved for use in oral liquid dosage forms by the FDA. One general characteristic for artificial sweeteners is their very high sweetness compare to sucrose. This also results in a much lower concentration needed in the formulation, which can lower the cost and/or risk of incompatibility with the drug or other excipients. Additionally, a sugar-free formulation... 

Probably the most significant trend in soft drinks manufacture in recent years has been towards the use of non-calorific artificial sweeteners. The best known of these, saccharin, was used in soft drinks during and after the Second World War, when sugar was in short supply. Saccharin in its soluble form is about 450 times sweeter than sugar and can be a significant cost-reducer, but its sweetness is marred by a bitter taste to which many consumers are sensitive. 

Sucralose. Sucralose is the most recently permitted artificial sweetener. It is a chemically modified sugar but has a vety high sweetness factor, comparable with that of saccharin, but without the unpleasant aftertaste. 

If this residue does not taste sweet, the wine does not contain saccharin, but if it has a persistent sweet taste, the presence of an artificial sweetening agent is certain. Saccharin is identified as follows ... 

Dulcin.—When the residue from the extraction with the ether-benzene mixture is sweet, whilst the presence of saccharin is excluded by the reactions indicated above, tests are made for other artificial sweetening materials, among them dulcin. 

Influence of Sweeteners on Bitterness. In model system studies, natural fruit juice sugars were observed to raise the limonin threshold (24). An expanded study of natural and artificial sweeteners (26) demonstrated that sucrose, neohesperidin dihydro-chalcone (NHD), hesperetin dihydrochalcone glucoside (HDG) and aspartylphenylalanine methyl ester (AP) all raise the limonin threshold. At low sweetness levels HDG was the most effective followed by AP and NHD. Sucrose was without effect up to the 2% level. At sweetness levels equivalent to 1% sucrose, HDG, AP and NHD raised the limonin threshold in water from 1.0 ppm to 3.2, 2.5 and 1.3 ppm, respectively. Because of its high sweetness intensity, the concentration of NHD (16 ppm) was considerably lower than HDG (80 ppm) and AP (90 ppm). At 3-10% sucrose sweetness equivalency, the effectiveness of NHD increased substantially, sucrose moderately and HDG slightly, while that of AP decreased. Therefore, the sweeteners HDG, AP and NHD can effectively suppress limonin bitterness at low concentrations. 

James M. Schlatter, American chemist, combines two amino acids and obtains a sweet-tasting substance. This chemical is about 200 times sweeter than sugar and is named aspartame. In 1983, it is approved for use in carbonated beverages. It becomes the most widely used artificial sweetener. 

Another very intriguing piece of work that gives insight into the crystal nucleation process has been carried out on the simple sulfonamide saccharin (8.6) by Roger Davey of the University of Manchester, UK. Saccharin is one of the oldest known artificial sweeteners about 300 times as sweet as sucrose... 

As might be expected, the search for an even better artificial sweetener continues. Alitame is a dipeptide formed from aspartic acid and alanine, with an unusual amide at the carboxylate end of the alanine. It is 2000 times as sweet as sucrose— 1 pound of alitame has the sweetening power of I ton of sucrose In addition, because an amide bond is more stable than an ester bond, alitame is more stable to hydrolysis than is aspartame. Therefore, alitame keeps its sweetness in aqueous solution better than aspar-... 

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