滋味物质间相互作用的研究进展

Research Progress in Interactions between Taste-Active Components

人类的味觉提供了有关食品质量及其组成的必要信息。人类可鉴别出食物的5种基本味觉,即甜、咸、酸、苦和鲜味,但食物是多种滋味化合物组成的混合体系,因此滋味物质间相互作用是不可避免的。滋味物质间的相互作用发生在3个层面,即化合物混合时的化学反应、一种物质对另一种物质滋味受体的影响、混合物质在大脑中的综合感知。其中研究较多的是滋味物质在第二层面上的相互作用。二元、三元及多元滋味物质之间的关系是复杂的:当滋味化合物低强度/浓度混合时呈现增强效应;中等强度/浓度往往呈现加和作用;高强度/浓度混合时常呈现抑制作用。另外,滋味感知受很多因素的影响,如温度、pH值、黏度、硬度、受试者生理状况等。滋味物质间相互作用的研究主要聚焦在饮料滋味改良、药品苦味掩盖和口腔护理产品开发等具有广阔研究前景。

The sense of taste provides human with necessary information about the composition and quality of foods. Humans can distinguish f ive basic tastes： sweet, salty, sour, bitter and savory（or umami）. Interactions between taste-active components are unavoidable due to the complex composition of food system. There are three levels of taste interactions, including chemical interaction before precipitation of taste compounds, oral physiological interactions and central processing during mixture identification. There are more studies on the second level of taste interactions. The interactions between binary and temary taste compounds are complex： enhancement effect is shown when sapid compounds are mixed at low intensity/concentration; additive effect is shown at medium intensity/concentration; suppression effect is shown at high intensity/concentration. Furthermore, taste perception is inf luenced by many factors such as pH, temperature, viscosity, food hardness and the physiological state of the subject. The studies of interactions between taste-active compounds focus more on aspects with broad prospects, including improving beverage taste, masking medicament bitterness and developing oral care products.