Monatin:

Naturally occurring sweetener isolated from another South African plant. Monatin contains no carbohydrate or sugar, and nearly no food energy, unlike sucrose or other nutritive sweeteners. Monatin is an indole derivative, and upon degradation smells like feces. Avoid.

Curculin:

Curculin, a sweet protein that is 500 to 2000 times sweeter than sugar was isolated from a Malaysian Plant.

Like miraculin, curculin exhibits taste-modifying activity; however, unlike miraculin, it also exhibits a sweet taste by itself. After consumption of curculin, water and sour solutions taste sweet.

The sweet taste observed after holding curculin in the mouth in combination with clear water or acidified water (citric acid), respectively, lasts for 5 minutes with water and 10 minutes with an acidic solution. Sweetness was also observed with other acids such as ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and acetic acid.

Like most proteins, curculin is susceptible to heat. At a temperature of 50 °C the protein starts to degrade and lose its “sweet-tasting” and “taste-modifying” properties, so it is not a good candidate for use in hot or processed foods. However, below this temperature both properties of curculin are unaffected in basic and acidic solutions, so it has potential for use in fresh foods and as a table-top sweetener.

Because curculin is not widely found in nature, efforts are underway to produce a recombinant form of the protein.

Curculin is approved in Japan as a harmless additive, according to the List of Existing Food Additives established by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Brazzein:

Brazzein is a sweet-tasting protein extracted from the fruit of another West African Plant.

Like the other sweet proteins discovered in plants, such as monellin and thaumatin, it is extremely sweet compared to commonly used sweeteners (500 to 2000 times sweeter than sucrose).

Its sweet perception is more similar to sucrose than that of thaumatin, with a clean sweet taste, a lingering aftertaste, and slight delay (longer than aspartame) in an equi-sweet solution.

Brazzein is stable over a broad pH range from 2.5 to 8 and heat stable at 98°C for up to 2 hours.

Brazzein represents an alternative to available low-calorie sweeteners. As a protein, it is safe for diabetics. It is also very soluble in water.

When blended with other sweeteners, such as stevia, brazzein reduces their aftertaste and complements their flavor.

Its taste profile is closer to sucrose than other natural sweeteners (apart from thaumatin). Unlike other sweet-tasting proteins, it can withstand heat, making it more suitable for industrial food processing.

Increasing interest in brazzein makes it difficult to source naturally and it is now being synthesised by a solid-phase method and also produced via genetically modified E.coli bacteria and also from maize and wheat plants.

Mabinlins:

Mabinlins are sweet-tasting proteins extracted from the seed of Mabinlang, a Chinese plant. There are four homologues, Mabinlin-2 is the most selected.

Mabinlins sweetness were estimated to be about 100-400 times that of sucrose which make them less sweet than thaumatin but elicit a similar sweetness profile.

The sweetness of mabinlin-2 is unchanged even after 48 hours at 80 °C.

Mabinlin as a protein is readily soluble in water and found to be highly sweet, its high heat stability makes it a preferred sweetener.

Note:

Such powerful sweeteners are often available as liquid concentrates to be measured in drops for use, or more often as tablets or powder bulked up with Erythritol, a sugar alcohol that is 60 per cent as sweet as sugar, virtually noncaloric (95 percent less than sugar), and which does not cause tooth decay and does not affect blood sugar. It can be used as is sugar. It does not usually cause laxative effects as 90 percent is absorbed before it enters the large intestine, although large doses may cause nausea, bloating and diarrhea.

As an alternative to sweeteners you may also experiment with spices and extracts such as cinnamon and vanilla.

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