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Sucrose, the most widely used sweetener globally, is of plant origin. In addition, a number of other plant constituents are employed as dietary sucrose substitutes in one or more countries, including the diterpenoid, stevioside, the triterpenoid, glycyrrhizin, and the protein, thaumatin. Accordingly, there has been much interest in discovering further examples of potently sweet compounds of natural origin, for potential use in foods, beverages, and medicines. Approximately 75 plant-derived compounds are presently known, mainly representative of the flavonoid, proanthocyandin, protein, steroidal saponin, and terpenoid chemotypes.
In our program directed towards the elucidation of further highly sweet molecules from plants, candidate sweet-tasting plants for laboratory investigation are obtained from ethnobotanical observations in the field or in the existing literature. Examples of novel sweet-tasting compounds obtained so far are the sesquiterpenoids, hernandulcin and 4beta-hydroxyhemandulcin; the triterpenoids, abrusosides A-D; a semi-synthetic dihydroflavonol based on the naturally occurring substance, dihydroquercetin 3-acetate; and the proanthocyanidin, selligueain A.
Natural product sweeteners may be of potential commercial use per se, and can be used for synthetic modification to produce improved sweeteners, and can also be of value scientifically to aid in the better understanding of structure-sweetness relationships.
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