Sugar Substitutes & Sweeteners - Curculin

Curculin which is extracted from Curculigo latifolia acts as a good low calorie sweetener. Its maximum sweetness is equal to 0.35 M of sucrose. It has taste modifying abilities since water and sour substances elicit a sweet taste after consumption of curculin. There is no other protein currently available with both sweet taste and taste modifying abilities. The taste modifying activity of the protein (discussed below) remains unchanged when it is incubated at 50°C for 1 hr between pH 3 and 11.

The molecular weight of Curculin was determined by low angle laser light scattering and was found to be 27800. Its three-dimensional model has been built from the X-ray coordinates of GNA, a mannose-binding lectin from snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis). The three mannose-binding sites present in GNA were found in curculin but were not functional. Some well exposed regions on the surface of the three-dimensional model of the said protein could act as epitopes responsible for the sweet-tasting properties of the protein. The protein can be crystallized by the vapor diffusion method using polyethylene glycol 400 as a precipitant. The crystals belong to orthorhombic space group P2(1)2(1)2(1) with unit cell dimensions: a = 105 Å, b = 271 Å, c = 48.7 Å. The crystals diffract X-rays to resolution of 3.0 Å and are suitable for X-ray crystallographic studies.

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