Abstract
Palatinose(a-D-glucopyranosyl-1,6-fructofranose)occur naturally in honey and sugar cane extract and is approximately half as sweet as sucrose. Palatinose is degraded by intestinal isomaltase to produce free glucose and fructose for metabolic utilization. Recently, an enzymatic method to convert sucrose into palatinose on an industrial scale was developed and it becomes possible to gain the palatinose in a large quantity and at a reasonable price. The palatinose preparation is more than 99 % pure and contains no other sugars. The effect of palatinose was examined in in vitro and animal experiments.
1. Strains of S. mutans representing the eight serotypes could not ferment palatinose significantly when the organisms were cultured at 37°C for 48 hr in phenol red broth containing 1 % palatinose.
2. Palatinose was not utilized by S. mutans strains when heavy cell suspensions were prepared and mixed with palatinose, whereas glucose and sucrose was rapidly utilized by the strain and the pH of the mixture lowered markedly within several minutes.
3. Crude GTase prepared from culture supernatant of S. mutans 6715 or MT8148R by ammonium sulfate precipitation could not synthesize insoluble glucan from palatinose, whereas the GTase did synthesize a large amount of insoluble glucan from sucrose. The amount of insoluble glucan produced from sucrose by GTase decreased markedly when increasing amounts of palatinose were added to the reaction mixture containing 1% sucrose.
4. Growing cells of S. mutans produced marked adherence to a glass surface in 1 % sucrose, while minimum adherence were recognized in 1% palatinose broth. Also the percentage of adherence gradually decreased as the amount of palatinose in the reaction mixture increased.
5. Palatinose did not induce dental caries in SPF rats infected with serotype c and g S. mutans, whereas sucrose or glucose manifested notable induction of dental caries. Partial replacement of sucrose by palatinose resulted in a significant reduction of caries development. However, it was also noted that the partial replacement of sucrose with wheat flour showed similar results and there were no statistically differences between the groups that replaced palatinose with wheat flour.
These results indicate the possibility that sucrose could be replaced by palatinose for the purpose of caries prevention in humans.
