Pentadin, a sweet-tasting protein, was discovered and isolated in 1989, in the fruit of Oubli (Pentadiplandra brazzeana

Pentadiplandra brazzeana

Pentadiplandra brazzeana is the sole species in the plant genus Pentadiplandra, which is placed alone in family Pentadiplandraceae....

 Baillon

Henri Ernest Baillon

Henri Ernest Baillon was a French botanist and physician. He was born in Calais on November 30, 1827 and died in Paris on July 19, 1895.Baillon spent his professional life as a professor of natural history, and he published numerous works on botany...

), a climbing shrub growing in some tropical countries of Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

.

The fruit has been consumed by the apes and the natives for a long time. The berries of the plant were incredibly sweet African locals call them "j'oublie" (French for "I forget") because their taste helps nursing infants forget their mothers' milk.

Pentadin, with brazzein

Brazzein

Brazzein is a sweet-tasting protein extracted from the West African fruit of the climbing plant Oubli . It was first isolated as an enzyme by University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1994....

 discovered in 1994, are the 2 sweet-tasting proteins discovered in this African fruit.

Pentadin molecular weight estimated to be 12kDa

Atomic mass unit

The unified atomic mass unit or dalton is a unit that is used for indicating mass on an atomic or molecular scale. It is defined as one twelfth of the rest mass of an unbound neutral atom of carbon-12 in its nuclear and electronic ground state, and has a value of...

.

It is reported to be 500 times sweeter than sucrose

Sucrose

Sucrose is the organic compound commonly known as table sugar and sometimes called saccharose. A white, odorless, crystalline powder with a sweet taste, it is best known for its role in human nutrition. The molecule is a disaccharide composed of glucose and fructose with the molecular formula...

 on a weight basis. With its sweetness having a slow onset and decline similar to monellin

Monellin

Monellin is a sweet protein which was discovered in 1969 in the fruit of the West African shrub known as serendipity berry , it was first reported as a carbohydrate...

 and thaumatin

Thaumatin

Thaumatin is a low-calorie sweetener and flavour modifier. The substance, a natural protein, is often used primarily for its flavour-modifying properties and not exclusively as a sweetener....

. However, pentadin sweet profile is closer to monellin than to thaumatin.