Method of controlling obesity with purified active principle of fruit of Synsepalum dulcificum

DETAILED DESCRIPTION It is claimed: 1.
A method of controlling obesity which comprises orally administering to a human from about 10 to 400 .
mu.
g.
of the tastemodifying active principle of the fruit of the plant Synsepalum dulcificum and maintaining said active principle in the human's mouth for at least about 2 minutes, thereby providing a sweetening effect in the human's mouth lasting for a controlled time period of from about 10 minutes to about 3 hours depending upon the specific dosage administered, said sweetening effect being such that low-caloric value foodstuffs containing acids subsequently ingested by the human during said time period will taste satisfyingly sweet, said active principle having been obtained by the steps of: a.
contacting the fruit of Synsepalum dulcificum with a suspension of polyvinyl pyrrolidone in a basic medium; b.
filtering the suspension to obtain a supernatant containing the active principle of the fruit; c.
adding .
epsilon.
-amino caproic acid to the supernatant; d.
acidifying the supernatant to reduce the pH to the range of 6.
0 - 6.
5; e.
filtering the supernatant to obtain a solution of the active principle; f.
adsorbing the active principle on at least one chromatographic column, with at least one column employing a support material selected from the group consisting of cellulose and polyacrylamide-based strongly basic anion exchangers; and g.
eluting the active principle with Na.
sub.
2 HPO.
sub.
4 to recover the active principle from the column.




Description:
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a process for purification of the active principle of the fruit of the plant Synsepalum dulcificum.
Also disclosed is a method for the use of this active principle in the control of obesity.
The botanical plant species of Synsepalum dulcificum is indigenous to tropical West Africa, where it is often referred to as "miracle fruit.
" The plant, which grows in the form of a shrub, yields ripe red berries from December to June, the berries being ellipsoidal in shape and about 0