Sweetness potency

Sweetness evaluation Sweetness potency Sweet n Low Sweet potato Sweet potatoes Sweetzyme Swelling Swimmingpool Swimming p o ols... 

Acesulfame-K is a white crystalline powder having a long (six years or more) shelf life. It readily dissolves in water (270 g/L at 20°C). Like saccharin, acesulfame-K is stable to heat over a wide range of pH. At higher concentrations, there is a detectable bitter and metallic off-taste similar to saccharin. Use of the sodium salt of feruHc acid [437-98-4] (FEMA no. 3812) to reduce the bitter aftertaste of acesulfame-K has been described (64). The sweetness potency of acesulfame-K (100 to 200x, depending on the matching sucrose concentration) (63) is considered to be about half that of saccharin, which is about the same as that of aspartame. 

The disaccharide stmcture of (12) (trade name SPLENDA) is emphasized by the manufacturer as responsible for a taste quaUty and time—intensity profile closer to that of sucrose than any other high potency sweetener. The sweetness potency at the 10% sucrose solution sweetness equivalence is between 450 and 500X, or about two and one-half times that of aspartame. When compared to a 2% sugar solution, the potency of sucralose can be as high as 750X. A moderate degree of synergy between sucralose and other nonnutritive (91) or nutritive (92) sweeteners has been reported. 

Alitame (trade name Adame) is a water-soluble, crystalline powder of high sweetness potency (2000X, 10% sucrose solution sweetness equivalence). The sweet taste is clean, and the time—intensity profile is similar to that of aspartame. Because it is a stericaHy hindered amide rather than an ester, ahtame is expected to be more stable than aspartame. At pH 2 to 4, the half-life of aUtame in solution is reported to be twice that of aspartame. The main decomposition pathways (Fig. 6) include conversion to the unsweet P-aspartic isomer (17) and hydrolysis to aspartic acid and alanine amide (96). No cyclization to diketopiperazine or hydrolysis of the alanine amide bond has been reported. AUtame-sweetened beverages, particularly colas, that have a pH below 4.0 can develop an off-flavor which can be avoided or minimized by the addition of edetic acid (EDTA) [60-00-4] (97). 

These workers proceeded to carry out theoretical conformational analyses of a set of sweeteners, many of which have multiple A-H and/or B sites. The set of compounds analyzed are reported in Table I along with the sweet potency relative to sucrose. A fixed valence geometry molecular mechanics force field was used in the conformational analyses. The conformational search strategy was as follows ... 

For other series of aspartyl sweetners, similar quantitative correlations were derived 61). In each series, steric dimensions of the Cl and C2 substituents in terms of length and/or width parameters are crucial determinants for the sweet potency. 

Sucralose (2), 4,l, 6 -trichloro-4,l, 6 -trideoxy-ga/actosucrose (TGS), is a trichloro disaccharide nonnutritive sweetener.18 This compound was discovered through a systematic study in which sucrose derivatives were prepared. It was found that substitution of certain hydroxy groups by a halogen increased the sweetness potency dramatically.19 20 Sucralose was chosen as the development candidate by Tate and Lyle.21-24... 

Numbers represent the sweetness potency of the compound as a multiple of sucrose. In addition, 0 = tasteless, - = bitter. 

The studies on peptides began with a correlation between sweet amino acids and peptides. Since the projection formula of L-Asp-Gly-OMe (4) is similar in size and shape to that of e-Ac-D-Lys (3) which is sweet, we predicted that L-Asp-Gly-OMe would taste sweet in spite of the bitter taste in the literature. Therefore, we synthesized the peptide and tasted it. As expected, it was sweet and its sweetness potency was almost equal to that of e-Ac-D-Lys. Thus, the dipeptide could be correlated to the amino acid. Lengthening (5) or enlargement (6) of the alkyl group of the ester did not affect its sweetness potency (Table 1). 

From the above discussion, we have concluded that a hydro-phobic binding site is necessary for a series of potent sweet peptides. Next, we examined how a hydrophilic group would affect the sweetness potency. 

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