Résumé
The pulp of the miracle fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum) has the ability to change the acidic taste of ingested foods into a sweet taste. This functionality is due to miraculin, a glycoprotein presents in the pulp of the fruit. Miraculin is low in calories and can be used for the development of stabilized natural sweetener for food. This study aimed to extract and quantify the miraculin level in the pulp of Sisrè (Synsepalum dulcificum) collected from various localities of Benin and explore its thermal behavior. The aim was to generate preliminary quantitative data on the termosensitivity of miraculin. The beninese miracle fruits were characterized by an average mass value of 0.9 g, a length of 1.66 cm and a thickness of 0.84 cm. In dry basis, the pulp represented 12.8 % of the fruit while the seed was preponderant representing 73.8 % of the fruit. Overall, the miracle fruits studied exhibited size and average mass 35 % lower than values reported in literature. Likewise, the pulp content is 33 % lower than those obtained in the literature. However, the miraculin concentration in the pulp was higher than those reported by other authors amounting to 4.8 g‧kg−1 DB. Heat treatments led to significant losses of miraculin. In the raw pulp (aw = 0.97), 70.5 % and 71.9 % of miraculin were lost after isothermal treatments for 5 min at 70 °C and 80 °C respectively. The intensity of degradation was slightly lower when the pulp was lyophilized up to a 0.31 aw with 66.8 % lost recorded at 70 °C (5 min). The findings highlight the potential of Beninese Sisrè as a natural sweetener, while also providing valuable insights for developing stabilization processes to obtain high-quality functional products.
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•Characterization of a sample of Beninese Sisrè berries.•Quantitative method application to evaluate miraculin content of the fruit.•Quantification of miraculin losses after heating at 70–90 °C/5 min with 2 aw.