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PubMed2018

TAS2R38 Predisposition to Bitter Taste Associated with Differential Changes in Vegetable Intake in Response to a Community-Based Dietary Intervention.

Although vegetable consumption associates with decreased risk for a variety of diseases, few Americans meet dietary recommendations for vegetable intake. TAS2R38 encodes a taste receptor that confers bitter taste sensing from chemicals found in some vegetables. Common polymorphisms in TAS2R38 lead to coding substitutions that alter receptor function and result in the loss of bitter taste perception. Our study examined whether bitter taste perception TAS2R38 diplotypes associated with vegetable consumption in participants enrolled in either an enhanced or a minimal nutrition counseling intervention. DNA was isolated from the peripheral blood cells of study participants (N = 497) and analyzed for polymorphisms. Vegetable consumption was determined using the Block Fruit and Vegetable screener. We tested for differences in the frequency of vegetable consumption between intervention and genotype groups over time using mixed effects models. Baseline vegetable consumption frequency did not associate with bitter taste diplotypes (P = 0.937), however after six months of the intervention, we observed an interaction between bitter taste diplotypes and time (P = 0.046). Participants in the enhanced intervention increased their vegetable consumption frequency (P = 0.020) and within this intervention group, the bitter non-tasters and intermediate-bitter tasters had the largest increase in vegetable consumption. In contrast, in the minimal intervention group, the bitter tasting participants reported a decrease in vegetable consumption. Bitter-non tasters and intermediate-bitter tasters increased vegetable consumption in either intervention more than those who perceive bitterness. Future precision medicine applications could consider genetic variation in bitter taste perception genes when designing dietary interventions.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Variations in human taste bud density and taste intensity perception.

Some variations in human taste sensitivity may be due to different numbers of taste buds among subjects. Taste pores were counted on the tongue tips of 16 people with videomicroscopy, and the subjects were divided into two groups (N = 8) by the rank order of their taste bud densities. The "higher" density group averaged 374 +/- 134 taste pores/cm2, while the "lower" density group averaged 135 +/- 43 tp/cm2. The higher density group had an average fungiform papilla density which was 1.8 times greater than the lower density group and an average of 1.5 times more taste pores/papilla. The subjects also rated the intensity for 4 suprathreshold concentrations of 5 taste stimuli placed on the same region of the tongue where taste pores were counted. The group with higher taste bud densities gave significantly higher average intensity ratings for sucrose (196%), NaCl (135%) and PROP (142%), but not for citric acid (118%) and quinine HCl (110%) than the lower density group. Thus, the subjects with higher fungiform taste bud densities also reported some tastes as more intense than subjects with fewer fungiform taste buds.

Arousal↗

PubMed1977

Taste acuity of the human palate. I. Studies with electrogustometry and taste solutions on young adults.

The purposes of the study were to determine whether or not taste perception was present in the area which would have been covered by the base plate of a full upper denture and, if taste perception was present there, to compare its strength to that of the remainder of the soft palate and of the apex and base of the tongue. The taste acuity of 32 dental students was measured at the apex and base of the tongue and on the hard and soft palate using two methods, an electric current and sweet, salty, sour and bitter test solutions, the latter in order to determine whether or not there exist differences in the perception of the different taste modalities in these areas. No taste perception could be demonstrated on the hard palate except in the region close to the border between the hard and soft palate, where the threshold values were very high compared with those for the soft palate immediately behind this border and for the tongue. The inter-individual range of the threshold values for the soft palate was very large. Further studies on the taste acuity of the human palate and its role in the total perception of taste are indicated.

Adult↗

PubMed1979

The occurrence of taste buds in the palate of human adults as evidenced by light microscopy.

There is some uncertainty in the literature as to the existence of taste buds in the palate of the human adult. In those histologic studies in which the ages of the individuals have been reported, taste buds have not been found in the palates of adults, but have been found in fetuses or newborn. However, clinical studies have demonstrated taste perception in the palate of the human adult. Thus, the aim of the present study was to attempt to find taste buds in the human palate in subjects of different ages. In serial sections of selected areas of the palatal mucosa from autopsy material from individuals 0--80 years of age no taste buds could be demonstrated. However, in four of seven subjects aged 25--44 years, one or two taste buds were found in biopsies from areas of the soft palate where taste perception had been demonstrated clinically just prior to excision. Thus the present study indicates that scattered taste buds exist also in the soft palate of human adults.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1986

Adverse effects profile of sulfhydryl compounds in man.

Many of the adverse reactions produced by penicillamine and other compounds with an active sulfhydryl group form a distinctive pattern when viewed as a class. Alterations in taste perception, mucocutaneous lesions, proteinuria due to immune-complex membranous glomerulopathy, and pemphigus are adverse reactions that have been encountered with all of the compounds discussed herein. Hematologic reactions such as neutropenia and thrombocytopenia occur rarely and with variable frequency. The angiotension converting enzyme inhibitor captopril has an active sulfhydryl group. When it was first given in high doses to patients with severe hypertension, adverse effects similar in pattern to those just outlined were reported. With reduced doses and more careful patient selection, the more serious reactions are no longer found, but disturbances of taste perception, rash, and oral mucosal ulcers are still encountered.

Anemia, Aplastic↗

PubMed1991

Ingestion patterns of food, water, saccharin and sucrose in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

Changes in preference for sweet tasting solutions have previously been reported in diabetic rats. The present study was designed to use detailed analyses of drinking patterns to investigate changes in sweet taste perception in rats made diabetic with a streptozotocin (SZ) injection and tested with saccharin and a broad range of sucrose concentrations. Although meal patterns in diabetic rats have been studied extensively, drinking patterns and their relation to meal patterns have not been described. A second goal of this research was to use the detailed patterns of eating and drinking of the diabetic rat in an effort to understand the resulting hyperphagia. Rats were given IP injection of SZ or saline. Following the SZ injection, the rats showed marked increase in blood glucose levels, an increase in food and fluid intake and they failed to gain weight. The SZ-injected rats showed a loss of preference for saccharin and for high concentrations of sucrose. Patterns of sucrose ingestion that are correlated with taste perception were distorted in the diabetic rats. The detailed pattern analysis of eating showed that the diabetic-induced hyperphagia resulted from a marked increase in length of eating bouts. The increase in fluid intake in the diabetic rats resulted from both an increase in frequency and length of drinking bouts. Circadian patterns of both food and fluid ingestion were maintained in the diabetic rats.

Animals↗

PubMed1979

Taste acuity of the human palate. II. Studies with electrogustometry on subjects in different age groups.

The electrical taste acuity on the hard and soft palate and the tip of the tongue was determined in 140 subjects aged 13-81 years using an electrogustometer constructed for the study. The possible influence of several variables including age, sex, wearing of a full upper denture, smoking as well as medical and social factors on the threshold values was also studied. Taste perception was demonstrated on the soft palate and on an area of the hard palate close to the junction of the hard and soft palate in most subjects. No perception of the electrical taste was found in eleven subjects (8%) on either the hard or the soft palate and in an additional 33 subjects (24%) on the hard palate alone and 2 subjects (1%) on the soft palate alone. The taste thresholds on the hard palate were very high compared to those on the soft palate and those on the tongue. Older subjects generally had higher thresholds than did younger subjects and the differences were greater for the thresholds on the hard and soft palate than for those on the tongue. No statistically significant differences in threshold values were found between women and men, denture wearers and non-denture wearers or smokers and non-smokers.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1991

Smell and taste disorders, a study of 750 patients from the University of Pennsylvania Smell and Taste Center.

Smell and taste disorders are common in the general population, yet little is known about their nature or cause. This article describes a study of 750 patients with complaints of abnormal smell or taste perception from the University of Pennsylvania Smell and Taste Center, Philadelphia. Major findings suggest that: chemosensory dysfunction influences quality of life; complaints of taste loss usually reflect loss of smell function; upper respiratory infection, head trauma, and chronic nasal and paranasal sinus disease are the most common causes of the diminution of the sense of smell, with head trauma having the greatest loss; depression frequently accompanies chemosensory distortion; low body weight accompanies burning mouth syndrome; estrogens protect against loss of the sense of smell in postmenopausal women; zinc therapy may provide no benefit to patients with chemosensory dysfunction; and thyroid hormone function is associated with oral sensory distortion. The findings are discussed in relation to management of patients with chemosensory disturbances.

Burning Mouth Syndrome↗

PubMed1975

Role of sensory factors in chewing and feeding behavior.

Since feeding behavior has a complex physiological background, in the physiology of feeding behavoir not only the mechanisms in the hypothalamus, but also input and output physiologic factors which stimulate and/or inhibit the central network for feeding and aversion behavior, must be considered. Normal feeding and aversion behavior are accomplished by a series of highly co-ordinated physiological functions involving various parts of the body, and humoral, hormonal, metabolic, and sensory and motor functions for feeding behavior must be well considered from a wider wiew point. For this purpose, morphological, biochemical, and neurophysiological extensive approaches to study the feeding behavior mechanisms are essentially important. In the present paper, neurophysiological network concerning feeding and aversion behavior was under discussion. Particularly, relations between input, central and output factors for these behaviors were considered. As an input factor, a role of the nerve impulses of the chorda tympani and lingual nerves was evaluated. As a central factor, involvement of the neurons in the cortical taste area was discussed, and response patterns of cortical taste neurons to negative and positive taste information was analyzed with regard to taste perception mechanisms. In addition, mechanisms in the posterior hypothalamus for the taste aversion behavior were explained through ablation and recording techniques in the rat; and the neuromuscular mechanisms of chewing, which complete the feeding behavior, were also discussed. Importance of such comprehensive systematic approach to proper understanding of feeding and aversion behaviors was emphasized.

Animals↗

PubMed1992

Carboxylic acid replacement structure-activity relationships in suosan type sweeteners. A sweet taste antagonist. 1.

N-(4-Cyanophenyl)-N'-(2-carboxyethyl)urea (2), an analogue of suosan [1,N-(4-nitrophenyl)-N'-(2-carboxyethyl)urea], is a known high-potency sweetener derived from beta-alanine. Sulfonic and phosphonic acid analogues of 2 were prepared to develop structure-activity relationships through modification of the carboxylic acid region of this family of sweeteners. Neither of the carboxylic acid replacements resulted in sweet analogues. However, we found that N-(4-cyanophenyl)-N'-[(sodiosulfo)methyl]urea (7) is an antagonist of the sweet taste response. The bitter taste response to caffeine, quinine, and naringin was also antagonized. Antagonist 7 was found to inhibit the sweet taste perception of a variety of sweeteners. Antagonist 7 had no effect on the sour or salty taste response.

Aspartic Acid↗

PubMed1985

Taste responses to saltiness among hypertensive subjects under different therapeutic regimens.

Dietary sodium restriction is increasingly regarded as important in the prevention and treatment of essential hypertension. However, low-sodium diets are frequently considered unpalatable and therefore unfeasible. The objectives of this study were to determine (a) whether hypertensives, treated and untreated, differ in saltiness taste perception from age-matched normotensive controls and (b) whether sodium reduction can be accomplished by substituting another taste stimulus without reducing apparent saltiness and palatability. Subjects included 72 hypertensives, 44 to 69 years old, divided among three treatment groups; 25 age-matched normotensive controls; and an additional 21 normotensives, 20 to 43 years old, to provide an age continuum for evaluating age effects. Taste responses were measured in terms of saltiness intensity and preference using tomato juice varying systematically in sodium chloride and citric acid content. No significant differences were found between normotensives and hypertensives. No significant effects were associated with blood pressure status, therapeutic regimen, age, sex, race, or anthropometric measurements. Both sodium chloride and citric acid were main effects for saltiness, allowing a trade-off between salt and acid. Addition of citric acid permitted 50% reduction of sodium content in tomato juice without disturbing palatability criteria. Results provide a model for modifying other processed foods.

Adrenergic beta-Antagonists↗

PubMed1989

Taste evaluation and compliance of two paediatric formulations of phenoxymethylpenicillin in children.

The primary objective of the study was to evaluate the taste of two formulations of phenoxymethylpenicillin suspension in children. The two suspensions, designated Test and Standard, differed only in their flavouring and sweetening agents. The secondary objectives were to study age-related differences in taste perception, to evaluate the acceptability of the suspensions, and to determine patient compliance. In 319 children with acute otitis media a taste description was recorded after a single therapeutic dose. The patient's own spontaneous verbal judgements, directly after the dose intake and also 3-4 minutes later, were recorded. The parents were asked about the child's acceptance of the suspension after finalized treatment. For 214 patients compliance was calculated from the remaining amount of suspension in the returned medication bottles. The study indicated that children aged 6 years or older considered the test formulation to be better-tasting than the standard formulation. The judgements by the parents also indicated that the test suspension was more acceptable. In children below 6 years there was no significant difference between the two suspensions with regard to taste or acceptance. A high patient compliance (greater than or equal to 90%) was obtained in 88% of the patients.

Child↗

PubMed1992

Early developmental change in bitter taste responses in human infants.

Human newborns (birth-6 days) and older infants (14-180 days) were allowed to ingest both urea (0.12-0.24 M) in a mildly sweet diluent and the diluent alone, and multiple measures of responsivity were obtained (relative intake, sucking behavior, and hedonic ratings based on facial expressions and body movements). For newborns, there was no indication of rejection of urea relative to the diluent in measures of intake or sucking behavior; rather, their responses were predominantly controlled by the order of presentation of the two tastes. In contrast, older infants tended to reject all concentrations of urea according to these measures. Hedonic ratings provided an indication of limited rejection of the bitter taste by newborns, but older infants were still found to respond more consistently. These data suggest there is an early developmental change in bitter taste perception.

Facial Expression↗

PubMed1992

Gustatory neural coding in the monkey cortex: L-amino acids.

1. Single-neuron activity in the primary gustatory cortex of the alert cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fascicularis) was analyzed in response to a range of taste stimuli. Tastants included the four prototypical stimuli (glucose, NaCl, HCl, and quinine), fruit juice, and 12 amino acids selected for their chemical characteristics, nutritional significance, and biological importance, as well as for the availability of human psychophysical data on their perceived qualities. 2. Taste-evoked responses could be recorded from a cortical area that measured 3.5 mm in its anteroposterior extent, 2.0 mm mediolaterally, and 6.0 mm dorsoventrally. Gustatory cells constituted 4.8% of the 1,129 neurons tested. Nongustatory cells gave responses associated with mouth movements (11.1%), somatosensory stimulation (3.8%), approach or anticipation of the taste stimulus (2.2%), and tongue extension (0.4%). 3. The most effective taste stimuli were those with qualities that humans describe as salty or sweet: NaCl, monosodium glutamate, glucose, proline, glycine, and fruit juice. The least effective tastants were those rated bitter or insipid: tyrosine, tryptophan, phenylalanine, and leucine. Accordingly, 79% of the gustatory neurons responded best to glucose (46%) or NaCl (33%) among the basic stimuli; only 19% responded best to quinine (13%) or HCl (6%). One cell (2%) responded exclusively to fruit juice. 4. Cortical gustatory neurons showed a moderate breadth of sensitivity, with a mean breadth of tuning coefficient of 0.71 across 54 cells. There was no evidence of chemotopic organization in the taste cortex. 5. The taste quality of each stimulus was inferred from the relative similarity of the profiles they evoked. The clearest distinction among stimuli was between those that humans characterize as sweet versus those with other qualities. Several amino acids that have dominant sweet (glycine and proline), salty (arginine and monosodium glutamate), sour (tryptophan), or bitter (phenylalanine) components to humans evoked activity profiles that were associated with those of the appropriate prototypical stimuli. Others (cysteine and lysine) were not closely related to any single prototype. 6. Conclusions based on the responses of cortical cells in the monkey are in close agreement with those that derive from human psychophysical studies of L-amino acids, reinforcing the value of this neural model for human taste perception.

Amino Acids↗

PubMed2026

Dietary soybean or seaweed (Kappaphycus sp.) modulates taste-related gene (tas1r1 and tas1r2.2) expression in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus).

Taste perception plays a central role in fish feeding behaviour by influencing feed recognition, intake, and nutrient sensing. As aquaculture increasingly adopts plant-based ingredients to replace fishmeal, understanding how these diets affect gustatory mechanisms is critical. This study evaluated TAS-family taste receptor genes in Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fed nutritionally formulated diets containing fishmeal (TFM), soybean meal (TSB), red seaweed (Kappaphycus sp., TSW), alongside a natural meal (TNM) reference. Fish were reared for 62 days under controlled conditions, after which growth performance was evaluated, and tongue transcriptomes were analysed using RNA sequencing to identify diet-associated gene expression changes. Candidate TAS1R and TAS2R receptors were identified through conserved domain screening and phylogenetic validation, and differential expression analysis was performed using DESeq2. Growth performance did not differ significantly among diets, although the soybean group showed the highest weight gain. Under the conditions of this study, most taste-related genes remained transcriptionally stable across formulated diets, indicating limited responsiveness of the gustatory system to ingredient substitution. Transcriptional differences were mainly observed in comparisons involving the TNM (TSB vs TNM and TSW vs TNM), where tas1r1 was upregulated, suggesting altered amino acid sensing relative to the non-formulated diet. Among formulated diets, tas1r2.2 was upregulated in the TSW vs TFM comparison, indicating potential modulation of carbohydrate-related taste pathways associated with seaweed inclusion. No reliable TAS2R transcripts were detected, likely due to low expression or tissue-specific distribution. Overall, taste receptor expression in Nile tilapia appears resilient to dietary variation, with selective modulation of TAS1R genes providing molecular insight into chemosensory adaptation to sustainable feed ingredients.

Animals↗

PubMed1976

A history of sweeteners--natural and synthetic.

Sweetness for the prehistoric man was the taste sensation obtained from sweet berries and honey. Man's quest for other sweet things led to sucose, starch-derived sugars, and synthetic sweeteners. An unusual source of sweet taste is a West African berry known as miracle fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum). This fruit possesses a taste-modifying substance that causes sour foods--e.g., lemons, limes, or grapefruit--to taste sweet. The active principle was found to be a glycoprotein. Until this time, only small molecules were considered sweet-evoking substances, but now macromolecules are considered capable of participating in taste perception. The intense sweetener of the fruit of Dioscoreophyllum cumminsii, called the serendipity berry, was revealed to be a protein. The intensely sweet principle of Thaumatococcus daniellii, called katemfe, was reported in 1972 to contain two proteins having intense sweetness. Since intensely sweet protein sweeteners act directly on taste buds as a probe, a peptide linkage analogous to the aspartic acid sweeteners may be partly responsible for their sweetness.

History of Medicine↗

PubMed1985

Methyl xanthines enhance taste: evidence for modulation of taste by adenosine receptor.

The methyl xanthines (MX), theophylline, caffeine, and theobromine, are potent antagonists of adenosine receptors. Adaptation of the human tongue to methyl xanthines at concentrations ranging from 10(-5) M to 10(-2) M was found to potentiate taste. The artificial sweetener acesulfam-K, which has a bitter component, was potentiated the most by MX, i.e., approximately 100%. This increase in perceived intensity for acesulfam-K occurred at 10(-5) M MX, a concentration known to inhibit adenosine receptors but below that required to inhibit phosphodiesterase. Increasing the concentration of MX as high as 10(-2) M did not increase the degree of enhancement appreciably. Taste enhancement was found for NaCl and quinine hydrochloride as well. When 10(-5) M adenosine was added to the MX, the potentiation was reversed. The human results were confirmed by animal studies in which single unit extracellular recordings were made from the nucleus of the solitary tract. These results suggest that the inhibitory A1 adenosine receptor plays an important local role in taste perception.

1-Methyl-3-isobutylxanthine↗

PubMed2026

Predicting food taste with bound-driven optimization.

The prediction of sensory attributes from ingredient-level formulations is an emerging challenge at the intersection of food science and artificial intelligence. We address the fundamental question of whether the taste of a food can be predicted from its ingredients by treating recipes as composite materials. We apply Hashin-Shtrikman (HS) and Reuss-Voigt (RV) bounds, techniques originally developed for elastic moduli, as a null-hypothesis additive baseline for five taste dimensions (sweetness, sourness, bitterness, umami, saltiness) on a curated dataset of 70 recipes decomposed into 115 distinct ingredients scored against a library of 209 ingredient-level taste references with trained-panel ground truth. This baseline systematically under-predicts perceived taste: 77% of actual taste values exceeded the HS upper bound, with the exceedance rate ranging from 26% (bitterness) to 97% (saltiness). We traced this gap to specific processing chemistry (Maillard reactions, caramelization, evaporative concentration, protein hydrolysis, and nucleotide synergy) and introduced a hybrid model that augments the HS baseline with eight chemistry-proxy features encoding these mechanisms. Our results show that our interpretable hybrid model eliminates the systematic bias and reduces mean absolute error by 27%-62% for sweetness, sourness, umami, and saltiness while using only 10 interpretable features, achieving performance comparable to a black-box Lasso regression on 115 per-ingredient features. We further demonstrate constrained inverse design via Differential Evolution, recovering ingredient formulations that match target taste profiles subject to compositional bounds. Our work demonstrates how key chemical processes during food preparation can inform and augment physics-based and machine learning models, providing a quantitative fingerprint of processing chemistry's contribution to taste perception and paving the way for model-driven food formulation with targeted sensory characteristics.

Composite material bounds↗