Nonnutritive sweeteners: taste-structure relationships for some new simple dihydrochalcones

Area of Science:

• Food chemistry
• Organic synthesis
• Sweetener technology

Background:

• Dihydrochalcones are a class of compounds known for their sweetening properties.
• Neohesperidin dihydrochalcone is a well-established, intensely sweet natural sweetener.
• Exploring novel dihydrochalcone structures is crucial for developing new sweetening agents.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize and characterize novel simple nonglycosidic dihydrochalcones.
• To evaluate the sweetness profiles of the synthesized compounds.
• To identify potential replacements or alternatives to existing sweeteners.

Main Methods:

• Chemical synthesis of six sweet and five non-sweet dihydrochalcone derivatives.
• Sensory evaluation and comparative analysis of sweetness intensity.
• Structural elucidation using spectroscopic techniques.

Main Results:

• Successful preparation of eleven dihydrochalcone analogues.
• Two synthesized compounds demonstrated sweetness comparable to neohesperidin dihydrochalcone.
• Identification of structure-activity relationships influencing sweetness.

Conclusions:

• The study successfully identified novel dihydrochalcone sweeteners.
• The findings contribute to the development of new sweetening agents with desirable properties.
• Further research may focus on optimizing these compounds for commercial applications.