Publications by authors named "Kisho Iizuka"
Non-acidic compounds induce the intense sweet taste of neoculin, a taste-modifying protein.
Biosci Biotechnol Biochem
January 2012
Article Synopsis
- Neoculin is a sweet protein from the fruit of Curculigo latifolia that can convert sour flavors into sweet ones.
- It has the unique ability to make drinking water taste sweet, suggesting that it can affect non-acidic compounds.
- Research shows that ammonium chloride and specific amino acids trigger neoculin's sweetness, making it useful for enhancing the flavor of foods rich in amino acids.
pH-Dependent structural change in neoculin with special reference to its taste-modifying activity.
Biosci Biotechnol Biochem
November 2009
Neoculin has pH-dependent taste-modifying activity. This study found that neoculin changed pH-dependently in its tryptophan- and ANS-derived fluorescence spectra, while no such change occurred in a neoculin variant whose histidine residues were replaced with alanine. These results suggest that the sweetness of neoculin depends on structural change accompanying the pH change, with the histidine residues playing a key role.
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