|
Curculin
Curculin or neoculin is a sweet protein that was discovered and isolated in 1990 from the fruit of '' Curculigo latifolia'' (Hypoxidaceae), a plant from Malaysia. Like miraculin, curculin exhibits taste-modifying activity; however, unlike miraculin, it also exhibits a sweet taste by itself. After consumption of curculin, water and sour solutions taste sweet. The plant is referred to locally as 'Lumbah' or 'Lemba'. Protein structure The active form of curculin is a heterodimer consisting of two monomeric units connected through two disulfide bridges. The mature monomers each consist of a sequence of 114 amino acids, weighing 12.5 kDa (curculin 1) and 12.7 kDa (curculin 2), respectively. While each of the two isoforms is capable of forming a homodimer, these do not possess the sweet taste nor the taste-modifying activity of the heterodimeric form. To avoid confusion, the heterodimeric form is sometimes referred to as "neoculin". *1, 1-50: DNVLLSGQTL HADHSLQAGA YTLTIQNKCN LVK ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Curculigo Latifolia
''Curculigo'' is a flowering plant genus in the family Hypoxidaceae, first described in 1788. It is widespread across tropical regions of Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas. Curculin is a sweet protein that was discovered and isolated in 1990 from the fruit of ''Curculigo latifolia'', a plant from Malaysia. Like miraculin, curculin exhibits taste-modifying activity; however, unlike miraculin, it also exhibits a sweet taste by itself. After consumption of curculin, water and sour solutions taste sweet. The plant is referred to locally as 'lembah' or 'lumbah'; English: 'weevil-wort'. ;Species # '' Curculigo annamitica'' Gagnep. – Vietnam # '' Curculigo breviscapa'' S.C.Chen – China (Guangxi, Guangdong) # '' Curculigo conoc'' Gagnep. – Vietnam # '' Curculigo disticha'' Gagnep. – Vietnam # '' Curculigo ensifolia'' R.Br. – Australia # '' Curculigo erecta'' Lauterb. – Philippines, Sumatra, New Guinea, Solomon Island # '' Curculigo maharashtrensis'' M.R.Almeida & ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miraculin
Miraculin is a taste modifier, a glycoprotein extracted from the fruit of ''Synsepalum dulcificum''. The berry, also known as the miracle fruit, was documented by explorer Chevalier des Marchais, who searched for many different fruits during a 1725 excursion to its native West Africa. Miraculin itself does not taste sweet. When taste buds are exposed to miraculin, the protein binds to the sweetness receptors. This causes normally sour-tasting acidic foods, such as citrus, to be perceived as sweet. The effect can last for one or two hours. History The sweetening properties of ''Synsepalum dulcificum'' berries were first noted by des Marchais during expeditions to West Africa in the 18th century. The term ''miraculin'' derived from experiments to isolate and purify the active glycoprotein that gave the berries their sweetening effects, results that were published simultaneously by Japanese and Dutch scientists working independently in the 1960s (the Dutch team called the glycop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Miraculin
Miraculin is a taste modifier, a glycoprotein extracted from the fruit of ''Synsepalum dulcificum''. The berry, also known as the miracle fruit, was documented by explorer Chevalier des Marchais, who searched for many different fruits during a 1725 excursion to its native West Africa. Miraculin itself does not taste sweet. When taste buds are exposed to miraculin, the protein binds to the sweetness receptors. This causes normally sour-tasting acidic foods, such as citrus, to be perceived as sweet. The effect can last for one or two hours. History The sweetening properties of ''Synsepalum dulcificum'' berries were first noted by des Marchais during expeditions to West Africa in the 18th century. The term ''miraculin'' derived from experiments to isolate and purify the active glycoprotein that gave the berries their sweetening effects, results that were published simultaneously by Japanese and Dutch scientists working independently in the 1960s (the Dutch team called the glycop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taste Receptor
A taste receptor or tastant is a type of cellular receptor which facilitates the sensation of taste. When food or other substances enter the mouth, molecules interact with saliva and are bound to taste receptors in the oral cavity and other locations. Molecules which give a sensation of taste are considered "sapid". Vertebrate taste receptors are divided into two families: * Type 1, sweet, first characterized in 2001: – * Type 2, bitter, first characterized in 2000: In humans there are 25 known different bitter receptors, in cats there are 12, in chickens there are three, and in mice there are 35 known different bitter receptors. Visual, olfactive, "sapictive" (the perception of tastes), trigeminal (hot, cool), mechanical, all contribute to the perception of ''taste''. Of these, transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily V member 1 ( TRPV1) vanilloid receptors are responsible for the perception of heat from some molecules such as capsaicin, and a CMR1 receptor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protein Dimer
In biochemistry, a protein dimer is a macromolecular complex formed by two protein monomers, or single proteins, which are usually non-covalently bound. Many macromolecules, such as proteins or nucleic acids, form dimers. The word ''dimer'' has roots meaning "two parts", '' di-'' + '' -mer''. A protein dimer is a type of protein quaternary structure. A protein homodimer is formed by two identical proteins. A protein heterodimer is formed by two different proteins. Most protein dimers in biochemistry are not connected by covalent bonds. An example of a non-covalent heterodimer is the enzyme reverse transcriptase, which is composed of two different amino acid chains. An exception is dimers that are linked by disulfide bridges such as the homodimeric protein NEMO. Some proteins contain specialized domains to ensure dimerization (dimerization domains) and specificity. The G protein-coupled cannabinoid receptors have the ability to form both homo- and heterodimers with several ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been described as a ''sui generis'' political entity (without precedent or comparison) combining the characteristics of both a federation and a confederation. Containing 5.8per cent of the world population in 2020, the EU generated a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of around trillion in 2021, constituting approximately 18per cent of global nominal GDP. Additionally, all EU states but Bulgaria have a very high Human Development Index according to the United Nations Development Programme. Its cornerstone, the Customs Union, paved the way to establishing an internal single market based on standardised legal framework and legislation that applies in all member states in those matters, and only those matters, where the states have agreed to ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taste Modifiers
The gustatory system or sense of taste is the sensory system that is partially responsible for the perception of taste (flavor). Taste is the perception produced or stimulated when a substance in the mouth reacts chemically with taste receptor cells located on taste buds in the oral cavity, mostly on the tongue. Taste, along with olfaction and trigeminal nerve stimulation (registering texture, pain, and temperature), determines flavors of food and other substances. Humans have taste receptors on taste buds and other areas, including the upper surface of the tongue and the epiglottis. The gustatory cortex is responsible for the perception of taste. The tongue is covered with thousands of small bumps called papillae, which are visible to the naked eye. Within each papilla are hundreds of taste buds. The exception to this is the filiform papillae that do not contain taste buds. There are between 2000 and 5000Boron, W.F., E.L. Boulpaep. 2003. Medical Physiology. 1st ed. Elsevier ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plant Proteins
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclude the fungi and some algae, as well as the prokaryotes (the archaea and bacteria). By one definition, plants form the clade Viridiplantae (Latin name for "green plants") which is sister of the Glaucophyta, and consists of the green algae and Embryophyta (land plants). The latter includes the flowering plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns and their allies, hornworts, liverworts, and mosses. Most plants are multicellular organisms. Green plants obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts that are derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria. Their chloroplasts contain chlorophylls a and b, which gives them their green color. Some plants are parasitic or mycotrophic and have lost the ability t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thaumatin
Thaumatin (also known as talin) is a low-calorie sweetener and flavor modifier. The protein is often used primarily for its flavor-modifying properties and not exclusively as a sweetener. The thaumatins were first found as a mixture of proteins isolated from the katemfe fruit (''Thaumatococcus daniellii'') (Marantaceae) of West Africa. Although very sweet, thaumatin's taste is markedly different from sugar's. The sweetness of thaumatin builds very slowly. Perception lasts a long time, leaving a liquorice-like aftertaste at high concentrations. Thaumatin is highly water soluble, stable to heating, and stable under acidic conditions. Biological role Thaumatin production is induced in katemfe in response to an attack upon the plant by viroid pathogens. Several members of the thaumatin protein family display significant ''in vitro'' inhibition of hyphal growth and sporulation by various fungi. The thaumatin protein is considered a prototype for a pathogen-response protein ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monellin
Monellin, a sweet protein, was discovered in 1969 in the fruit of the West African shrub known as serendipity berry (''Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii''); it was first reported as a carbohydrate.GE Inglett, JF May. Serendipity berries - Source of a new intense sweetener. J Food Sci 1969, 34:408-411. The protein was named in 1972 after the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, U.S.A., where it was isolated and characterized. Protein composition Monellin's molecular weight is 10.7 kDa. It has two noncovalently associated polypeptide chains: an A chain sequence with 44 amino acid residues, and a B chain with 50 residues. Monellin chain A (44 AA): Monellin chain B (50 AA): Amino acid sequence of the sweet protein monellin adapted from Swiss-Prot biological database of protein. Monellin has a secondary structure consisting of five beta-strands that form an antiparallel beta-sheet and a 17-residue alpha-helix. In its natural form, monellin is composed of the two chains sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brazzein
Brazzein is a sweet-tasting protein extracted from the West African fruit of the climbing plant Oubli (''Pentadiplandra brazzeana'' Baillon). It was first isolated by the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1994. Brazzein is found in the extracellular region, in the pulp tissue surrounding the seeds. With pentadin, discovered in 1989, brazzein is the second sweet-tasting protein discovered in the Oubli fruit. Like the other sweet proteins discovered in plants, such as monellin and thaumatin, it is extremely sweet compared to commonly used sweeteners (500 to 2000 times sweeter than sucrose). The fruit tastes sweet to humans, monkeys, and bonobos, but gorillas have mutations in their sweetness receptors so that they do not find brazzein sweet, and they are not known to eat the fruit. Traditional use The Oubli plant (from which the protein was isolated) grows in Gabon and Cameroon, where its fruit has been consumed by the apes and local people for a long time. Due to brazzein ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japan External Trade Organization
is an Independent Administrative Institution established by Japan Export Trade Research Organization as a nonprofit corporation in Osaka in February 1952, reorganized under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) in 1958 (later the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry or METI), and became an Independent Administrative Institution in 2003 to consolidate Japan's efforts in export promotion. The government has provided more than half of JETRO's annual operating budget. As of January 2020, JETRO maintained seventy-four offices in fifty-four countries, as well as forty-eight regional offices in Japan, with a total staff of 1,730 (998 domestic, 732 overseas). Its main office is located in the Ark Mori Building in Akasaka, Tokyo. Initially, JETRO's activities focused mainly on promoting exports to other countries. As exporters established themselves in world markets and the balance of trade turned from deficit to surplus, however, JETRO's role shifted to encompass more ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
