Sweetness
Name Type of compound Sweetness
Lactose Disaccharide 0.16
Maltose Disaccharide 0.33 - 0.45
Sorbitol Polyalcohol 0.6
Glucose Monosaccharide 0.74 - 0.8
Sucrose Disaccharide 1.00 ( reference )
Fructose Monosaccharide 1.17 - 1.75
Sodium cyclamate Sulfonate 26
Steviol glycoside Glycoside 40 - 300
Aspartame Dipeptide methyl ester 180 - 250
Acesulfame potassium Oxathiazinone dioxide 200
Sodium saccharin Sulfonyl 300 - 675
Sucralose Modified disaccharide 600
Thaumatin Protein 2000
Lugduname Guanidine 300,000 ( estimated )
Examples of sweet substances
Further information : Sugar substitute A great diversity of chemical compounds , such as aldehydes and ketones , are sweet . Among common biological substances , all of the simple carbohydrates are sweet to at least some degree . Sucrose ( table sugar ) is the prototypical example of a sweet substance . Sucrose in solution has a sweetness perception rating of 1 , and other substances are rated relative to this . [ 13 ] For example , another sugar , fructose , is somewhat sweeter , being rated at 1.7 times the sweetness of sucrose . [ 13 ] Some of the amino acids are mildly sweet : alanine , glycine , and serine are the sweetest . Some other amino acids are perceived as both sweet and bitter . The sweetness of 20% solution of glycine in water compares to a solution of 10% glucose or 5% fructose . [ 14 ] A number of plant species produce glycosides that are sweet at concentrations much lower than common sugars . The most well-known example is glycyrrhizin , the sweet component of licorice root , which is about 30 times sweeter than sucrose . Another commercially important example is stevioside , from the South American shrub Stevia rebaudiana . It is roughly 250 times sweeter than sucrose . Another class of potent natural sweeteners are the sweet proteins such as thaumatin , found in the West African katemfe fruit . Hen egg lysozyme , an antibiotic protein found in chicken eggs , is also sweet .
Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable, except when in excess. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones, and sugar alcohols. Some are sweet at very low concentrations, allowing their use as non-caloric sugar substitutes. Such non-sugar sweeteners include saccharin and aspartame. Other compounds, such as miraculin, may alter perception of sweetness itself. The perceived intensity of sugars and high-potency sweeteners, such as aspartame and neohesperidin dihydrochalcone, are heritable, with gene effect accounting for approximately 30% of the variation. The chemosensory basis for detecting sweetness, which varies between both individuals and species, has only begun to be understood since the late 20th century. One theoretical model of sweetness is the multipoint attachment theory, which involves multiple binding sites between a sweetness receptor and a sweet substance. Studies indicate that responsiveness to sugars and sweetness has very ancient evolutionary beginnings, being manifest as chemotaxis even in motile bacteria such as E. coli. Newborn human infants also demonstrate preferences for high sugar concentrations and prefer solutions that are sweeter than lactose, the sugar found in breast milk. Sweetness appears to have the highest taste recognition threshold, being detectable at around 1 part in 200 of sucrose in solution.