Redpoint Bio updates on sweetness enhancer

Redpoint Bio Corp said its all-natural sweetness enhancer, RP44, is Reb-C (rebaudioside C), a component of the stevia plant.

Native to South America, extracts of the leaves of the stevia plant have been used as sweeteners around the world.

More recently, a purified component of stevia known as Reb A has received regulatory approval in the US and elsewhere.

The company says unlike Reb A, RP44 is not a sweetener but a sweetness enhancer that imparts no sweet taste of its own when used in a product.

Sweetness enhancers act by amplifying the existing sweet taste of caloric sweeteners such as sugar or high fructose corn syrup.

Redpoint had filed patent applications covering the sweetness enhancing effect of RP44.