| Definition | Isolated from the fruit of the serendipity berry (Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii). Intensely sweet compound
Monellin can be useful for sweetening some foods and drinks as it is a protein readily soluble in water due to its hydrophilic properties. However it may have limited application because it denatures under high temperature conditions which makes it unsuitable for processed food. It may be relevant as noncarbohydrate tabletop sweetener,especially for individuals such as diabetics who must control their sugar intake. In addition, monellin is costly to extract from the fruit and the plant is difficult to grow. Alternative production such as chemical synthesis and expression in micro-organisms are being investigated. For instance, monellin has been expressed successfully in yeast (Candida utilis) and synthesised by solid-phase method. The synthetic monellin produce by yeast was found to be 4000 times sweeter than sucrose when compared to 0.6% sugar solution. Legal issues are the main barrier in widespread use as a sweetener as Monellin has no legal status in the European Union or the United States. However, it is approved in Japan as a harmless additive, according to the List of Existing Food Additives issued by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (published in English by JETRO).; Monellin is a sweet protein which 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. The protein was named in 1972 after the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, U.S.A., where the it was isolated and characterized.; So far, five high intensity sweet proteins have been reported: monellin (1969), thaumatin (1972), pentadin (1989), mabinlin (1983) and brazzein (1994). Monellin's molecular weight is 10.7 kDa. Monellin is a two noncovalently associated polypeptide chains: an A chain sequence with 44 amino acid residues, and a B chain with 50 residues. |
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