Sweeteners from plants—with emphasis on Stevia rebaudiana (Bertoni) and Siraitia grosvenorii (Swingle)

Abstract

In addition to their widely recognized use as dietary supplement ingredients, plant-derived compounds are increasingly used as natural sweeteners. The search for nonnutritive sweeteners has been stimulated over the last 20-30 years by concern over demonstrated or suspected relationships between consumption of sucrose and high-fructose corn syrups and a variety of health-related conditions. In the USA, there is increased use of plant extracts known to contain highly sweet terpenoids. Purified extracts of Stevia rebaudiana (Bertoni) containing the diterpene glycosides stevioside and rebaudioside A are popular as sweeteners and are also used as dietary supplements, and soft drinks and nutritional and energy shakes incorporating extracts of Siraitia grosvenorii (Swingle) fruits containing sweet triterpene glycosides such as mogroside V are also on the market. Here, we review recent studies on these two important sources of noncaloric natural sweeteners, including analytical methods used to identify and quantify specific constituents and structural features relating to their sweetness. We also review the generally recognized as safe status of specific components and their status with respect to review by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives.

Methyl jasmonate-induced accumulation of metabolites and transcriptional responses involved in triterpene biosynthesis in Siraitia grosvenorii fruit at different growing stages

“…Furthermore, mogrosides exhibit a wide range of pharmacological characteristics, e.g., anti-oxidant, immunomodulatory, liver-protecting, anti-fatigue and anti-microbial properties [4,5]. Thus, with an increased public awareness of healthy diets, S. grosvenorii fruit have increasingly been used in Chinese herbal medicine, dietary supplements, and soft drinks [4,6].…”

“…Squalene (2,6,10,15,19,23-hexamethyltetracosa-2,6,10,14,18,22-hexaene) is an acyclic triterpenoid containing six isoprene units. In fact, squalene is present in all eukaryotic cells, however, some species are recognized as important accumulators of this compound.…”

Growth, leaf biomass yield of stevia and post-harvest soil fertility as influenced by different levels of poultry manure

“…al., 2010), capable to inhibit reactive oxygen species (ROS), responsible for the determination of several human pathologies, such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases etc. At the same time, the increasing health concern over the consumption of sugar and the problems related to the safety of some artificial non nutritive sweeteners (NNS) have stimulated the interest toward natural sweeteners (Pawar et al, 2013). Stevioside and other steviol glycosides extracted from the leaves of the plant Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni were the first natural high potency sweeteners to be approved for consumption in the United States, the European Union (Risso et al, 2014), as well as in Australia and New Zealand.…”

Recent Analytical Methods for the Analysis of Sweeteners in Food: A Regulatory Perspective

“…The majority are synthetic compounds, including aspartame Th (ASP), sucralose (SCL), saccharin (SAC), cyclamate (CYC), acesulfamepotassium (ACS-K), alitame (ALI), neotame (NEO) and dulcin (DUL). Neohesperidine dihydrochalcone (NHDC) is a semi-synthetic sweetener, while stevioside (STV) and rebaudioside (REB) A are natural sweeteners [4]. The list of allowable sweeteners varies among nations worldwide [5].…”