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 se nsation in humans, and gurmarin, which is a peptide, suppresses the sw eet taste response in the rat. Five sweet proteins, monellin, thaumati n, pentadin, curculin and mabinlin, are known. There are two sweetness -inducing proteins. Miraculin has the ability to modify a sour taste i nto a sweet taste. Curculin, which is itself a sweet protein, induces a sweet taste in response to water, as well as having a taste-modifyin g activity similar to that of miraculin.