RESUMO
Neoculin, a sweet protein found in the fruit of Curculigo latifolia, has the ability to change sourness into sweetness. Neoculin turns drinking water sweet, indicating that non-acidic compounds may induce the sweetness. We report that ammonium chloride and certain amino acids elicit the intense sweetness of neoculin. Neoculin can thus sweeten amino acid-enriched foods.
Assuntos
Curculigo/química , Tecnologia de Alimentos , Frutas/química , Proteínas de Plantas , Edulcorantes/metabolismo , Aminoácidos/metabolismo , Aminoácidos/farmacologia , Dicroísmo Circular , Curculigo/metabolismo , Frutas/metabolismo , Concentração de Íons de Hidrogênio , Proteínas de Plantas/química , Proteínas de Plantas/genética , Proteínas de Plantas/metabolismo , Espectrometria de Fluorescência , Edulcorantes/química , Paladar/efeitos dos fármacos , Percepção Gustatória/efeitos dos fármacosRESUMO
Neoculin has pH-dependent taste-modifying activity. This study found that neoculin changed pH-dependently in its tryptophan- and ANS-derived fluorescence spectra, while no such change occurred in a neoculin variant whose histidine residues were replaced with alanine. These results suggest that the sweetness of neoculin depends on structural change accompanying the pH change, with the histidine residues playing a key role.