Studies to Identify, Isolate, Develop and Test Naturally Occurring Noncariogenic Sweeteners That May Be Used as Dietary Sucrose Substitutes

摘要

Fifteen intensely sweet compounds were obtained from plant sources, namely, stevioside, steviolbioside, rebaudiosides A-E, and dulcoside A from Stevia rebaudiana; MG-1 from Thladiantha grosvenori; periandrins I-IV from Periandra dulcis; phyllodulcin from Hydrangea thunbergii; and hernandulcin, from Lippia dulcis. All of these are glycosides except phyllodulcin, which is a dihydroisocoumarin, and hernandulcin, which was established as a new sesquiterpene. Sweet ent-kaurene glycosides were identified in only Stevia rebaudiana and S. phlebophylla of 110 Stevia species examined. All of these sweet compounds were found to be nonmutagenic and nontoxic for mice when administered orally. However, steviol, the aglycone of stevioside - a permitted sweetener in Japan, was mutagenic in a forward mutation assay utilizing Salmonella typhimurium strain TM677. Hernandulcin, the prototype compound of a new class of sweetening agents, was rated as about 1,000 times sweeter than a standard sucrose solution by a human taste panel.