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Bitterness Suppression with Zinc Sulfate and Na-Cyclamate: A Model of Combined Peripheral and Central Neural Approaches to Flavor Modification

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Purpose

Zinc sulfate is known to inhibit the bitterness of the antimalarial agent quinine [R. S. J. Keast. The effect of zinc on human taste perception. J. Food Sci. 68:1871–1877 (2003)]. In the present work, we investigated whether zinc sulfate would inhibit other bitter-tasting compounds and pharmaceuticals. The utility of zinc as a general bitterness inhibitor is compromised, however, by the fact that it is also a good sweetness inhibitor [R. S. J. Keast, T. Canty, and P. A. S. Breslin. Oral zinc sulfate solutions inhibit sweet taste perception. Chem. Senses 29:513–521 (2004)] and would interfere with the taste of complex formulations. Yet, zinc sulfate does not inhibit the sweetener Na-cyclamate. Thus, we determined whether a mixture of zinc sulfate and Na-cyclamate would be a particularly effective combination for bitterness inhibition (Zn) and masking (cyclamate).

Method

We used human taste psychophysical procedures with chemical solutions to assess bitterness blocking.

Results

Zinc sulfate significantly inhibited the bitterness of quinine–HCl, Tetralone, and denatonium benzoate (DB) (p < 0.05), but had no significant effect on the bitterness of sucrose octa-acetate, pseudoephedrine (PSE), and dextromethorphan. A second experiment examined the influence of zinc sulfate on bittersweet mixtures. The bitter compounds were DB and PSE, and the sweeteners were sucrose (inhibited by 25 mM zinc sulfate) and Na-cyclamate (not inhibited by zinc sulfate). The combination of zinc sulfate and Na-cyclamate most effectively inhibited DB bitterness (86%) (p < 0.0016), whereas the mixture's inhibition of PSE bitterness was not different from that of Na-cyclamate alone.

Conclusion

A combination of Na-cyclamate and zinc sulfate was most effective at inhibiting bitterness. Thus, the combined use of peripheral oral and central cognitive bitterness reduction strategies should be particularly effective for improving the flavor profile of bitter-tasting foods and pharmaceutical formulations.

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Abbreviations

DB:

denatonium benzoate

DEX:

dextromethorphan

di:

deionized

gLMS:

general labeled magnitude scale

Mg(OAc)2:

magnesium acetate

MgSO4:

magnesium sulfate

NaOAc:

sodium acetate

PSE:

pseudoephedrine

QHCl:

Quinine-HCl

SOA:

sucrose octaacetate

TET:

Tetralone

ZnSO4:

zinc sulfate

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Gary Beauchamp for his comments on a draft of this manuscript. This research was supported by grants from NIH DC02995 to P.A.S.B. and NIH DC06186 to R.S.J.K.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Food Science, RMIT University, Cnr Russell and Victoria St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001, Australia

    Russell S. J. Keast

  2. Monell Chemical Senses Center, 3500 Market St, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19104, USA

    Paul A. S. Breslin

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  1. Russell S. J. Keast
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  2. Paul A. S. Breslin
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Correspondence to Russell S. J. Keast.

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Keast, R.S.J., Breslin, P.A.S. Bitterness Suppression with Zinc Sulfate and Na-Cyclamate: A Model of Combined Peripheral and Central Neural Approaches to Flavor Modification. Pharm Res 22, 1970–1977 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11095-005-6136-0

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