Human bitter taste is mediated by the hTAS2R family of G protein-coupled receptors. The discovery of the hTAS2Rs enables the potential to develop specific bitter receptor antagonists that could be beneficial as chemical probes to examine the role of bitter receptor function in gustatory and nongustatory tissues. In addition, they could have widespread utility in food and beverages fortified wit...

The toxic mushroom Naematoloma fasciculare contains several bitter components . The toxicity to mice, which was located in the water-soluble fraction , was estimated to be 2MU/g of the raw sample. On the other hand, the bitter components were detected only in the fat-soluble fraction, indicating that the bitter components are not responsible for the toxicity . Isolation of one of the bitter com...

Bitter is a taste modality associated with toxic substances evoking aversive behaviour in most animals, and the valence of different taste modalities is conserved between mammals and Drosophila. Despite knowledge gathered in the past on the peripheral perception of taste, little is known about the identity of taste interneurons in the brain. Here we show that hugin neuropeptide-containing neuro...

Drosophila melanogaster can taste various compounds and separate them into few basic categories such as sweet, bitter and salt taste. Here we investigate mechanisms underlying acid detection in Drosophila and report that the fly displays strong taste aversion to common carboxylic acids. We find that acid tastants act by the activation of a subset of bitter neurons and inhibition of sweet neuron...

Gustatory responses to the basic taste substances (sweet, salty, sour and bitter) were studied in hypothyroid and hyperthyroid subjects. The intensity and hedonic responses were evaluated using "category scaling" for 7 concentrations of glucose, sodium chloride, citric acid and quinine sulphate. The intensity and hedonic values decrease in hyperthyroidism for salt and bitter solution, and sourn...

The incidence of external and internal bitter pit in ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’ apple (Malus domestics Borkh.) fruit sprayed with normal therapeutic sprays either with or without Ca salts at 2-week intervals during the growing season was determined after 6 weeks of storage over 7 consecutive years. Following harvest, fruit was either vacuum-infiltrated with CaCI2 or received no further treatment. Al...

Conventional taste-masking strategies are used to overcome the bitter taste perception of pharmaceuticals by coating the drug particles and/or adding flavoring agents. However, for certain product categories such as rapid dissolve sublingual tablets, taste-masking is challenging. Programs exploring such formulation strategies in the LO-CS phase or post CS phase possess very little toxicological...

BACKGROUND Bitter herbs are important in Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Electronic Tongue (e-Tongue) is an instrument that can be trained to evaluate bitterness of bitter herbs and their constituents. The aim of this research was to evaluate bitterness of limonoids and alkaloids from Evodia rutaecarpa to demonstrate that they are main bitter material basic of E. rutaecarpa. METHODS Nine...

Rejection of bitter substances is common in many species and may function to protect an animal from ingestion of bitter-tasting toxins. Since many plants are bitter, it has been proposed that high tolerance for bitterness would be adaptive for herbivores. Earlier studies conducted on herbivorous guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) have been used to support this proposal. We tested guinea pigs with bi...

The levels of quinolizidine alkaloids in lupin seeds vary depending on the botanical and geographical origin of the lupin variety from which theyderive. “Bitter lupins” produce seeds which have a bitter taste due to the higher levels of quinolizidine alkaloids they contain. Bitter lupin seeds are not suitable for human consumption without appropriate pre-treatment (“debittering”). Lupin varieti...