Skip to main content
ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Plant Polymer Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #72404
Title: SWEET AND BITTER GLYCOSIDES: SENSORY AND MOLECULAR MODELING EVALUATION

Author
item Dunn Jr, Larson
item MAJEWSKI, SUSAN - UNIV. OF ILLINOIS

Submitted to: American Chemical Society Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/29/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Glycosides generate both sweet and bitter tastes along the lines of their anomeric configurations: alpha-anomers generally taste sweet and beta-anomers generally taste bitter, with the latter's intensity increasing with increasing aglycone size. This phenomemon of structurally similar compounds generating different tastes is not easily explained by the popular tripartite sweet receptor theories. However, a theory involving different interactions at a single receptor leading to different tastes, such as that proposed by Okai, may explain such a situation. To test this possibility, glycosides were evaluated for their sweetness or bitterness intensities, and the sensory evaluation was correlated to the "fit" of glycoside molecular models to theoretical tripartite receptors. Sensory data closely corresponded with literature reports, but there was little guidance as to the modeling treatment. A weighting system for molecular fit of glycosides to theoretical receptors was developed and found to have interesting correlations with the sensory data, generally confirming the tripartite sweetness receptor theories, but was somewhat inconsistent with respect to Okai's theory.