Which chemical compounds are thought to be responsible for bitter, sour, s alty and sweet tastes? When you eat candy or pickled cucumber, you notice the difference because your tongue has special bumps or papillae that hold taste buds to help you tell the difference between different foods. There are many receptor cells on each of the receptors that can recognize different tastes. Chemical compounds that taste sour, bitter or sweet can bind to these receptors, and a person tastes without even looking at what they eat.
Acid receptors
Taste is the ability of nerve cells in the mouth, throat and nose of a person and body to sense certain chemical compounds and transmit a message to the brain thatidentifies. The smell, texture, and temperature of a substance contribute to the sensation of taste, which is carried to the taste buds by saliva. This not only stimulates the appetite, but also helps to identify dangerous substances. The four classic taste sensations are bitter, sour, s alty and sweet.
What are the substances that taste sour? Sour taste, as it is logical to assume, have sour foods. Acids in food release hydrogen ions or protons. The concentration of hydrogen ions determines the degree of acidity. The decomposition of food by bacteria produces acid or hydrogen ions, and while some fermented foods such as yogurt have a pleasant acidity, sometimes this taste can be a warning of bacterial contamination in food.
Hydrogen ions bind to acid-sensitive channels in taste cell membranes. When the channels are activated, they affect the nerves. Early research attributed sour taste mainly to hydrogen ion production blocking potassium channels, but a recent study identifies an oxygen sensitive cation channel as the primary transducer of sour taste.
Bitter taste buds
Taste buds are responsible for the fact that you can distinguish bitter, sour, s alty or sweet food. The bitter taste is caused by acids, chemical compounds such as sulfonamides, alkaloids, glucose, fructose, ionized s alts, glutamate. Many alkaloids that are normally toxic cause a bitter taste and alsoquinine, which binds receptors that bind to specific proteins. Their activation initiates a signaling cascade that produces a feeling of bitterness.
Humans have 40-80 types of bitter taste receptors that detect various substances, including sulfonamides such as saccharin, urea, and alkaloids, including quinine and caffeine. Children have more taste receptors than adults, and the number of taste receptors decreases with age. In addition, children often dislike vegetables, which may be due to the production of bitter compounds by plants to protect them from animals that eat them. Sensitivity to bitter compounds also depends on genes encoding bitter taste receptors. Variations in these genes prevent some people from detecting bitterness in certain compounds.
Bitterness is a taste associated with substances containing polyphenols, flavonoids, isoflavones, glucosinolates and terpenes. They are present in fruits and vegetables and many plant foods such as coffee, beer, wine, chocolate, and tea. Many people avoid fruits and vegetables, especially the brassica group, which includes Brussels sprouts and broccoli, because of the bitterness they convey. The brassica group produces glucosinates, red wine produces phenols, and citrus fruits produce flavonoids. Plants use bitterness as a defense against predators. The bitter taste is a warning to humans. Small doses of these substances may have he alth benefits in fighting chronic disease, but in large doses they are toxic.
S alty taste receptors
People often crave salinity,because sodium ions are essential for many bodily functions. Salinity in food is mainly produced from sodium chloride (common s alt). A pleasant s alty taste occurs when sodium ions enter the sodium channel on the surface of taste cells and mediate nerve impulses through calcium influx. A hormone called aldosterone increases the number of sodium channels on taste cells when there is a sodium deficiency. Sodium channels on taste cells are also sensitive to the chemical amiloride and are different from sodium channels on nerves and muscles.
Sweet Recipes
The body's craving for sweet tastes may be due to the ability of sweet foods to provide a quick energy boost. The sweet taste in food consists mainly of glucose and fructose, which are found in sucrose or sugar. However, the sweet taste can also come from non-carbohydrates such as aspartame, saccharin, and some proteins. Sweet substances, like bitter substances, bind to protein-coupled receptors, resulting in activation of nerve endings.
Acidic carboxylic acids
Sour taste is caused by acids called carboxylic acids. They cause a sour taste in foods like fruits, vinegar, dairy products, and processed meats. They range from malic acid, found in apples, to lauric acid, a fatty acid found in coconuts. The function of the acid is to improve the taste of food and lower its pH level, which inhibits any microbial growth.
Acids also act as hardeners, especially for meat and fish. Initially, scientists attributed sour taste to the dissociation of acids in solution into hydrogen ions and anions, and only the sensation of hydrogen was responsible for the sensation of taste. However, this could not explain the different intensity of acidity. They may be related to other variables such as the number of carboxyl groups in the acid's molecular structure.
In nature, there are many substances that affect taste sensations. There are four basic tastes that can be perceived by the human tongue. These are bitterness, acidity, salinity and sweetness. A popular myth that has now been debunked is that different areas of the tongue are involved in the perception of different tastes. In fact, all taste buds can sense all tastes, and taste buds are found all over the tongue, as well as the cheeks and upper esophagus.
Threshold substances for sour taste
Examples of sour foods include lemon, spoiled milk, oranges, grapes, etc. Taste is measured and determined using threshold substances. Sour taste is measured by the acidity threshold of dilute hydrochloric acid bitterness, which is 1. Therefore, tartaric acid has an acidity score of 0.7, citric acid is 0.46, and carbonic acid is 0.06 compared to the threshold of hydrochloric acid.
How is a substance that tastes sour perceived? The answer sounds a little hard to understand: acidity is determined by the concentrationhydronium ions in ionic hydrogen channels. What is meant? Hydronium ions are formed from water and acid. The resulting hydrogen ions permeate the amyloride channels, allowing the detection of acidity. In addition to these sour taste detection mechanisms, there are other mechanisms, such as the conversion of CO2 to bicarbonate ions, facilitating weak acid transfer.
Substances that taste sour
When talking about the sour taste, people most often think of lemons, at the mere thought of which a little salivation begins. What is the chemical name for substances that taste sour? Here are some examples:
- acetic acid in vinegar;
- citric acid in citrus fruits;
- lactic acid in dairy products;
- tartaric acid in grapes and wine.
It all depends on the concentration, and strong acids can be deadly to the body. The food we are used to contains an acceptable level of concentration, for example, spinach, sorrel, some fruits and berries contain such a sour-tasting substance as oxalic acid. The most common is citric acid, which is found in citrus fruits, as well as in strawberries, raspberries, and gooseberries. Lactic acid is the result of lactic acid fermentation. More acidic properties are malic acid, which determines the sour note of apples, cherries, quince and passion fruit. Wine has the appearance of crystals. It can be seen in the sediment at the bottom of the barrel or on the inside of the wine bottle.plugs.
What other substances have a sour taste? These are inorganic compounds such as carbonic and phosphoric acid, phosphoric acid, which gives a sour taste to carbonated soft drinks. In the stomach of humans and all animals there is hydrochloric acid, ants produce formic acid. Substances that have a sour taste are very common in nature and are found not only in food, but also in living organisms themselves.
