SWEET, ANTISWEET AND SWEETNESS-INDUCING SUBSTANCES

Recent progress in studies of antisweet substances, sweet proteins and sweetness-inducing proteins is reviewed. Gymnemic acid, ziziphin and hodulcin, which are triterpene glycosides, suppress the sweet taste sensation in humans, and gurmarin, which is a peptide, suppresses the sweet taste response in the rat. Five sweet proteins, monellin, thaumatin, pentadin, curculin and mabinlin, are known. There are two sweetness-inducing proteins. Miraculin has the ability to modify a sour taste into a sweet taste. Curculin, which is itself a sweet protein, induces a sweet taste in response to water, as well as having a taste-modifying activity similar to that of miraculin.