Influence of chirality of amino acids on the growth of perceived taste intensity with concentration

Amino acids have markedly different taste properties depending upon their chirality and the structure of their side chains. They can modify the taste quality of foods in which they are found naturally or to which they are added depending on their concentrations. In this study, the influence of chirality of amino acids on the growth in perceived taste intensity with concentration was examined. Serial dilutions of 19 D-amino acids were presented to young subjects who indicated the relative intensities of the dilutions using the magnitude estimation procedure. The slopes of the psychophysical functions for 13 of the 19 D-amino acids which related log concentration and log perceived intensity were greater than the slopes for L-amino acids that have been reported in a previous study. The ratio (average slope D-amino acids)/(average slope L-amino acids) was found to be 1.21. The ratio of the slopes for individual enantiomers bears some relationship to taste quality. No conclusive relationships between the slopes of the psychophysical functions were found with chemical structure of thresholds, however. Implications for receptor mechanisms and nutrition are discussed.

[1]  C. P. Berg.  Physiology of the D-amino acids. , 1953, Physiological reviews.

[2]  Magnitude estimates of amino acids for young and elderly subjects , 1980, Neurobiology of Aging.

[3]  S. Schiffman,et al.  Comparison of taste qualities and thresholds of D- and L-amino acids , 1981, Physiology & Behavior.

[4]  V. C. Sgarbieri,et al.  Nutrification of dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris, L.) by methionine infusion , 1979 .

[5]  C. V. Etten,et al.  The availability of d-tryptophane and its acetyl derivative to the animal body. , 1932 .

[6]  S. Saito,et al.  MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALING OF THE TASTE OF AMINO ACIDS , 1969 .

[7]  S. Schiffman,et al.  Increased taste thresholds of amino acids with age. , 1979, The American journal of clinical nutrition.

[8]  R. Damico.  An investigation of N-substituted methionine derivatives for food supplementation. , 1975, Journal of agricultural and food chemistry.

[9]  S. Arai,et al.  ON THE BITTER-MASKING ACTIVITY OF A GLUTAMIC ACID-RICH OLIGOPEPTIDE FRACTION , 1975 .

[10]  Rose Wc,et al.  Tryptophan requirement for growth and utilization of its optical isomers. , 1952 .

[11]  C. Murphy,et al.  Sweet taste of dilute NaCl: Psychophysical evidence for a sweet stimulus , 1978, Physiology & Behavior.

[12]  A. Polychroniadou,et al.  Les acides aminés du fromage télémé , 1979 .

[13]  L. Bartoshuk,et al.  The psychophysics of taste. , 1978, The American journal of clinical nutrition.

[14]  H. Pease,et al.  Microbial conversion of methionine to methionine hydroxy analogue and its natural occurrence in various foods and feed products. , 1978, Journal of agricultural and food chemistry.

[15]  S. Schiffman,et al.  Taste of dipeptides , 1976, Physiology & Behavior.

[16]  C. P. Berg,et al.  Tryptophane metabolism. 2. The growthpromoting ability of dl-tryptophane. , 1932 .

[17]  D. Mcburney,et al.  Gustatory cross-adaptation: does a single mechanism code the salty taste? , 1969, Journal of experimental psychology.

[18]  Susan S. Schiffman,et al.  Taste of nutrients: Amino acids, vitamins, and fatty acids , 1975 .

[19]  S. Yong,et al.  Rapid separation of tryptophan, kynurenines, and indoles using reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. , 1979, Journal of chromatography.

[20]  J. Gent,et al.  Time course of gustatory adaptation , 1978, Perception & psychophysics.

[21]  S. S. Stevens,et al.  Measurement and man. , 1958, Science.

[22]  J. Greenstein,et al.  Chemistry of the Amino Acids , 1961 .

[23]  W. Rose,et al.  Comparative growth on diets containing ten and 19 amino acids, with further observations upon the role of glutamic and aspartic acids. , 1948, The Journal of biological chemistry.

[24]  J. Solms.  [The taste of amino acids, peptides and proteins]. , 1969, Internationale Zeitschrift fur Vitaminforschung. International journal of vitamin research. Journal international de vitaminologie.

[25]  Terry E. Acree,et al.  Chemical Structure of Compounds and Their Sweet and Bitter Taste , 1971 .

[26]  L. Bartoshuk,et al.  Bitter taste of saccharin related to the genetic ability to taste the bitter substance 6-n-propylthiouracil. , 1979, Science.