Brazzein

Brazzein is a sweet-tasting protein that occurs naturally in the fruit of oubli, Pentadiplandra brazzeana, a plant native to the Atlantic coastal areas of Central Africa. It was identified and named by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1994 and measures roughly five hundred to two thousand times sweeter than sucrose depending on the concentration compared. As a protein it is safe for diabetics, is highly water soluble, and has a taste profile closer to sucrose than many other sweeteners with only a slight aftertaste delay; unlike many other sweet proteins it remains stable when heated to nearly ninety eight degrees Celsius for two hours, making it viable for industrial food processing, and it can be produced by peptide synthesis or by recombinant technology in E. coli. In 2024 the company Oobli obtained the first GRAS certification from the United States Food and Drug Administration for a brazzein-based product.