New research from the University of Florida (UF) opens the door to the development of a natural calorie-free sugar substitute that tastes just as sweet.
A study on citrus fruits supervised by Dr. Yu Wang, associate professor of food science at the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, allowed identifying eight new sweeteners or sweetening compounds through an efficient metabolomics-based screening strategy in 11 citrus crops.
“We were able to identify a natural source for oxime V, an artificial sweetener that had never been identified from any natural source before,” Wang said; in fact, oxime V was previously only known as a synthetic compound. “This creates potential opportunities for citrus producers and for the selection of cultivars to obtain high yields of sweetening compounds.”
In addition to looking for real sweeteners in citrus fruits, the researchers also traced sweetness enhancers capable of significantly reducing the sugar levels needed to achieve the same level of perceived sweetness. To date, only six synthetic and two natural sweeteners/sweetness enhancers have been created, approved by the FDA, and put into use by the food industry.
“With the high demand for a healthy diet, it is necessary and important to explore natural sweeteners used in food that enhance palatability but minimize calories. Citrus is considered a good potential source of noncaloric sweeteners, but to date, only one sweetness modulator has been found in this most common fruit crop.” Wang stated.
The study has been published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Source: infobae.com