We investigated the ability of zinc sulfate (5, 25, 50 mM) to inhibit the sweetness of 12 chemically diverse sweeteners, which were all intensity matched to 300 mM sucrose [800 mM glucose, 475 mM fructose, 3.25 mM aspartame, 3.5 mM saccharin, 12 mM sodium cyclamate, 14 mM acesulfame-K, 1.04 M sorbitol, 0.629 mM sucralose, 0.375 mM neohesperidin dihydrochalcone (NHDC), 1.5 mM stevioside and 0.01...

Variation in ability to detect, recognize, and perceive sweetness may influence food consumption, and eventually chronic nutrition-related conditions such as overweight and obesity. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations between sweet taste function, anthropometry, and dietary intake in adults. Participants' (n = 60; mean age in years = 26, SD = ±7.8) sweet taste function for...

Neoculin occurring in the tropical fruit of Curculigo latifolia is currently the only protein that possesses both a sweet taste and a taste-modifying activity of converting sourness into sweetness. Structurally, this protein is a heterodimer consisting of a neoculin acidic subunit (NAS) and a neoculin basic subunit (NBS). Recently, we found that a neoculin variant in which all five histidine re...

OBJECTIVE Smoking and obesity are independently associated with high consumption of high-fat foods in women. We tested whether the co-occurrence of smoking and obesity associates with reduced oral fat perception. METHODS Four groups of women (14 obese smokers, 11 obese never-smokers, 10 normal-weight smokers, 12 normal-weight never-smokers) rated vanilla puddings that varied in fat content fo...

Riboflavin-binding protein (RBP) is well known as a riboflavin carrier protein in chicken egg and serum. A novel function of RBP was found as a sweet-suppressing protein. RBP, purified from hen egg white, suppressed the sweetness of protein sweeteners such as thaumatin, monellin, and lysozyme, whereas it did not suppress the sweetness of low molecular weight sweeteners such as sucrose, glycine,...

Steviol glycosides are highly sweet diterpene glycosides found in the Paragyan shrub, Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni. Steviol glycosides, mainly stevioside and rebaudioside, principal components of Stevia rebaudiana leaf, has become well known for their sweetness and are used as non-caloric sweeteners in several countries due to their nutritional and pharmacological benefits. Hence, craving for swee...

The incidence of obesity, type II diabetes mellitus, and metabolic syndrome in children adults show an alarming increase worldwide. This was supported by one factor: the increasing availability high-calorie foods beverages, thus need for sweeteners. Researchers are driven to find a sweetener that can replace sugar. One natural sweeteners be used is Stevia plant. contains stevioside, which with ...