Sucrose substitutes

Table 23.2 gives the relative sweetness of the mono- and disaccharides considered here, along with sucrose substitutes. 

Fructose, prepared from hydrolysis of sucrose and isomerization of glucose is used in the manufacture of candy, soft drinks, and other processed foods. As fructose is 124 percent as sweet as sucrose, substitution of fructose for sucrose in foods permits a reduction in the calorie content of a food. 

The search for improved sucrose substitutes is continuing, and one of the most potent sweeteners synthesized so far is the N-cyclononylguanidine derivative, sucrononic acid. This is actually the sweetest compound reported in the literature to date with a sweetness... 

Besides the naturally occurring saccharides and polyols, there are a number of plant-derived highly sweet compounds, which are mostly terpenoids, flavonoids, and proteins [16-18]. Several of these sweet substances are used commercially as sucrose substitutes, as will be described in the next section. In addition, a number of plant substituents are known to mediate the sweet-taste response, either by inducing or inhibiting the perception of sweemess [19]. Thus far, all of the known natural product sweet-tasting substances and sweetness modifiers have been obtained from green plants [16-19]. In the remaining sections of this chapter, plant-derived sweet compounds with commercial use will be described, followed by a section on recent theories on the sweet taste phenomenon, and then individual descriptions of potent sweeteners, sweetness inducers, and sweetness inhibitors from plants will be presented in turn. The literature has been surveyed for this chapter until the end of 1999. 

The intensely sweet sesquiterpene, Hernandulcin, was isolated from a plant known to the Aztecs as Tzonpelic Xihuilt or sweet herb (Lippia dulcis). Hernandulcin which could be considered the prototype of a new class of dietary sucrose substitutes is said over 1000 times sweeter than sucrose. However to a human panel at SNPE, while tasting synthetic Hernandulcin made by the new methodology, some aftertaste and a slight bitterness was perceived by 50 % of the persons. 

Alcoholic fermentation furan-2-aldehyde production Reduction of xylitol sucrose substitute alcoholic fermentation production of furan-2-aldehyde... 

Sweeteners, natural. Noncaloric sucrose substitutes for use in the sweetening of foods, beverages and medicines may be either synthetic compounds or natural products. Highly sweet, potentially noncariogenic sweeteners from plants are used in Japan and some... 

Table 4.1. Effects on sieve tube regeneration of lAA and sucrose substituted for distal shoot organs of Coleus blumei. (Data from LaMotte and Jacobs 1963)...

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