An Implication of Molecular Mechanism for Eliciting Sweetness of Anionic β-Glycyrrhetinic Acid Derivatives

Abstract

Anionic derivatives of β-glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) containing a carboxylate- and a sulfate-terminated substituent at the C-3 position were prepared and assessed for their relative sweetness. A molecular mechanism for sweet taste expression of these derivatives was discussed assuming CPK molecular models of the N-terminal α-helix fragment of the T1R3 protein, which was a likely candidate for the binding site of GA derivatives and helped well explain their sweetness.