Curculigo latifolia

Curculin which is extracted with 0.5 M sodium chloride from the fruits of Curculigo latifolia and purified by ammonium sulphate fractionation, CM-sepharose ion-exchange chromatography and gel filtration.The protein acts as a low calorie sweetener and has a maximum sweetness equal to 0.35 M of sucrose. In addition to its sweetness, curculin also has taste modifying abilities since water and sour substances elicit a sweet taste after consumption of curculin. Currently, there is no other protein that has both sweet taste and taste modifying abilities. 

Curculin is a sweet protein (/sac, g (6.8) = 550) of known sequence (Table 8.6). It occurs in the fruit of Curculigo latifolia. The sweet taste induced by this protein disappears after a few minutes, only to reappear with the same intensity on rinsing with water. It is assumed that Ca and/or Mg ions in the saliva suppress the sweet taste. Rinsing with citric acid (0.02mol/l) considerably enhances the impression of sweetness (/sac, g(12) = 970). Thus, like miraculin, curculin acts as a taste modifier. 

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