Alternative sweetener from curculigo fruits

• Main Authors: Jalaluddin, Hazwan, Karim, Izz Qayyum, Mohammad Nor, Nurhanani, Senin, Zulkifli
• Other Authors: Hj Md Kamaruddin, Nafisah@Kamariah
• Format: Book Section
• Language: English
• Published: Penerbit UTHM 2020
• Subjects: Q Science (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/2696/1/Ch03.pdf; http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/2696/

This study gives an overview on the advantages of Curculigo Latifolia as an alternative sweetener and a health product. The purpose of this research is to provide another option to the people who suffer from diabetes. In this research, Curculigo Latifolia was chosen, due to its unique properties and widely known species in Malaysia. In order to obtain the sweet protein from the fruit, it must go through a couple of procedures. First we harvested the fruits from the Curculigo trees that grow wildly in the garden. Next, the Curculigo fruits were dried in the oven at 50 0C for 3 days. Finally, the dried fruits were blended in order to get a fine powder. Curculin is a sweet protein with a taste-modifying activity of converting sourness to sweetness. The curculin content from the sample shown are directly proportional to the mass of the Curculigo fine powder. While the FTIR result shows that the sample spectrum at peak 1634 cm–1 contains secondary amines. At peak 3307 cm–1 contains alkynes.