Highly sweet compounds of plant origin: From ethnobotanical observations to wide utilization

Soejarto, Djaja D.; Addo, Ermias Mekuria; Kinghorn, A. Douglas

doi:10.1016/j.jep.2019.112056

Cited by 54 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Although flavor properties are not identical, herbal drugs used as natural low caloric sweeteners may also show some degree of redundancy (Soejarto et al 2019) as well as the essential oil obtained from anise (Pimpinella anisum L., Apiaceae), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill., Apiaceae) and star anise, (Illicium verum Hook.f., Schisandraceae) fruits, all three with a high content of E-anethole (11), also known as anise camphor, 80-95%, 80%, and 80-90%, respectively (Bruneton 1999;Rocha et al 2016). Above all, does utilitarian redundancy exist in the case of generic drugs (Kesselheim et al 2008).…”

Section: Pharmaceutical Redundancy: Where This Concept Makes Sensementioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological Theories and Major Hypotheses in Ethnobotany: Their Relevance for Ethnopharmacology and Pharmacognosy in the Context of Historical Data

Leonti

Casu

Martins

et al. 2020

Rev. Bras. Farmacogn.

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The cross-cultural exchange of plant resources between societies across the globe added to the diversification of medicinal floras and pharmacopeias. Understanding how and why people select plants for medicine is still a common focus and topic addressed by the interdisciplinary research fields of ethnobotany, anthropology, ethnopharmacology, ethnomedicine, pharmacy, phytochemistry, and pharmacognosy. Here, we scrutinize recently reviewed ethnobotanical theories and hypotheses, which focus on the selection of plants as medicine by putting them into historical, ecological, and pharmacological perspective. We contextualize the availability, versatility, and diversification hypotheses, often presented in association with the inclusion of non-native species or imported herbal drugs into medicinal floras or ethnopharmacopeias. We also discuss the relevance of the concept of utilitarian redundancy and the apparency hypothesis, as well as the appropriateness of various statistical models applied for assessing non-random plant selection. It appears that the concept of utilitarian redundancy has been applied in a too reductionist and uncritical way, while the apparency theory is conceptually inconsistent and contradictive allowing for multiple interpretations. While the availability, versatility, and diversification hypotheses are not contextualized historically, they are used to explain retrospectively deliberate and well-documented human activities and cultural developments. Therefore, considering the cultural history and the pharmacology of plants is essential for the formulation of hypotheses related to the selection of plants as medicine and food. Ecological research questions applied to human-plant relationships should consider the historical impact of human culture as a framework and confounder to be integrated into the analysis.

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Section: Pharmaceutical Redundancy: Where This Concept Makes Sensementioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological Theories and Major Hypotheses in Ethnobotany: Their Relevance for Ethnopharmacology and Pharmacognosy in the Context of Historical Data

Leonti

Casu

Martins

et al. 2020

Rev. Bras. Farmacogn.

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“…These Kauran-type diterpenoids are present in the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana (Asteraceae), which has been used for centuries by the indigenous population of Paraguay [12]. After stevioside (35) was first isolated from the leaves of "Yerba dulce" in 1931, additional glycosides were discovered since the 1970s, of which nine were studied for their sweetening properties (34,(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42) (Figure 11) [65][66][67][68]. Of the total amount of glycosides, which can vary between 4 and 20% of dried leaves, stevioside (35) and rebaudioside A (38) are present in the highest concentrations [67,69].…”

Section: Kauran-type Diterpenoidsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Of the total amount of glycosides, which can vary between 4 and 20% of dried leaves, stevioside (35) and rebaudioside A (38) are present in the highest concentrations [67,69]. The latter compound has the GRAS status and is marketed as rebiana [68,70]. It is also the sweetest among the glycosides and said to have the least, though still considerable, bitter and lingering aftertaste [11].…”

Section: Kauran-type Diterpenoidsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mogrosides (71)(72)(73)(74)(75)(76)(77)(78)(79)(80)(81)(82)(83)(84)(85)(86)(87) belong to the most intense and most popular triterpenoid sweeteners ( Figure 15) [12,68]. These compounds are the sweetening principle of Siraitia grosvenorii (Cucurbitaceae) fruit, also known as monk fruit or luo han guo [68]. The total amount of mogrosides in the dried fruit was determined with 3.8%, while the amount of major triterpenoid mogroside V (79) was found to vary between 0.5 and 1.4% [89].…”

Section: Cucurbitane-type Triterpenoidsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The total amount of mogrosides in the dried fruit was determined with 3.8%, while the amount of major triterpenoid mogroside V (79) was found to vary between 0.5 and 1.4% [89]. Having been used for centuries in China as medicinal plant and herbal sweetener, extracts containing mogroside V (79) are presently used in Japan and the United States, where they are classified with the GRAS status [12,68,89]. Of the more than 50 triterpenoids isolated so far, only those bearing an α-hydroxy-group in position 11 and at least three sugar moieties exhibit a sweet taste [89][90][91][92][93].…”

Section: Cucurbitane-type Triterpenoidsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Structure-Dependent Activity of Plant-Derived Sweeteners

Ҫiçek

2020

Molecules

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Human sensation for sweet tastes and the thus resulting over-consumption of sugar in recent decades has led to an increasing number of people suffering from caries, diabetes, and obesity. Therefore, a demand for sugar substitutes has arisen, which increasingly has turned towards natural sweeteners over the last 20 years. In the same period, thanks to advances in bioinformatics and structural biology, understanding of the sweet taste receptor and its different binding sites has made significant progress, thus explaining the various chemical structures found for sweet tasting molecules. The present review summarizes the data on natural sweeteners and their most important (semi-synthetic) derivatives until the end of 2019 and discusses their structure–activity relationships, with an emphasis on small-molecule high-intensity sweeteners.

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Natural products and secondary metabolites comprise an indispensable resource from living organisms that have transformed areas of medicine, agriculture, and biotechnology. Recent advances in high-throughput DNA sequencing and computational analysis suggest that the vast majority of natural products remain undiscovered. To accelerate the natural product discovery pipeline, cell-free metabolic engineering approaches used to develop robust catalytic networks are being repurposed to access new chemical scaffolds, and new enzymes capable of performing diverse chemistries. Such enzymes could serve as flexible biocatalytic tools to further expand the unique chemical space of natural products and secondary metabolites, and provide a more sustainable route to manufacture these molecules. Herein, we highlight select examples of natural product biosynthesis using cell-free systems and propose how cell-free technologies could facilitate our ability to access and modify these structures to transform synthetic and chemical biology.

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Highly sweet compounds of plant origin: From ethnobotanical observations to wide utilization

Cited by 54 publications

References 46 publications

Ecological Theories and Major Hypotheses in Ethnobotany: Their Relevance for Ethnopharmacology and Pharmacognosy in the Context of Historical Data

Ecological Theories and Major Hypotheses in Ethnobotany: Their Relevance for Ethnopharmacology and Pharmacognosy in the Context of Historical Data

Structure-Dependent Activity of Plant-Derived Sweeteners

Cell‐Free Exploration of the Natural Product Chemical Space

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