NONCARIOGENIC INTENSE NATURAL SWEETENERS

There is a definite relationship between the dietary consumption of su crose and the incidence of dental caries. Noncaloric sucrose substitut es for use in the sweetening of foods, beverages, and medicines may be either synthetic compounds or natural products. In the United States, four potently sweet artificial sweeteners are approved, namely, sacch arin, aspartame, acesulfame potassium, and sucralose. Highly sweet pla nt constituents are used in Japan and some other countries, including the diterpene glycoside stevioside and-the protein thaumatin. Recent p rogress in a research project oriented towards the discovery and evalu ation of novel potentially noncariogenic sweeteners from plants has fo cused on substances in the sesquiterpenoid, diterpenoid, triterpenoid, steroidal saponin, and proanthocyanidin structural classes. The feasi bility of using Mongolian gerbil electrophysiological and behavioral a ssays to monitor the sweetness of plant extracts, chromatographic frac tions, and pure isolates has been investigated. An in vivo cariogenici ty study on the commercially available natural sweeteners stevioside a nd rebaudioside A has been carried out. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, In c.