Taste confusions following gymnemic acid rinse

The effect of a gymnemic acid (GA) rinse, which simulated a sweet-taste deficit, was measured on human taste perception and identification. Taste ratings showed that GA reduced the intensities of sucrose and aspartame to 14% of pre-rinse levels; over the recovery interval of 30 min, these values inc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemical senses 1999-08, Vol.24 (4), p.393-403
Main Authors: GENT, J. F, HETTINGER, T. P, FRANK, M. E, MARKS, L. E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
gymnemic acid
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Olfaction. Taste
Perception
Perception - drug effects
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Saponins
Taste - drug effects
Taste - physiology
Triterpenes - pharmacology
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Summary:The effect of a gymnemic acid (GA) rinse, which simulated a sweet-taste deficit, was measured on human taste perception and identification. Taste ratings showed that GA reduced the intensities of sucrose and aspartame to 14% of pre-rinse levels; over the recovery interval of 30 min, these values increased linearly to 63% of the pre-rinse levels. Repeated presentations of a set of 10 stimuli (five primarily or partly sweet--sucrose, aspartame, and NaCl-sucrose, acid-sucrose and quinine-sucrose mixtures; and five nonsweet--NaCl, KCl, Na glutamate (MSG), quinine HCl and citric acid) for identification following water and GA rinses produced 'taste confusion matrices' (TCMs). Correct identification of the sweet-tasting stimuli was reduced by 23% in presentations closely following the GA rinse, an effect that dissipated with time. Most misidentifications involved sucrose and mixtures containing sucrose. In a second TCM experiment, GA was presented frequently within each session to maintain the sweet taste deficit, which revealed itself as specific confusions. Rinsing with GA impaired discriminability of sweet-nonsweet pairs of stimuli but enhanced discriminability of the aspartame-(NaCl-sucrose) pair. GA had no effect on discriminability of nonsweet stimulus pairs. The results suggest that specific error patterns in the TCM could be used to identify quality-specific taste disorders.
ISSN:0379-864X
1464-3553
1464-3553
DOI:10.1093/chemse/24.4.393