Mouth bacteria give some wines, food a flavor boost
By Anne Harding
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Certain wines, fruits and vegetables pack a delayed but powerful flavor punch thanks to the bacteria living in our mouths, food chemists have demonstrated.
The late Emile Peynaud, considered the father of modern winemaking, remarked that the Sauvignon blanc grape had only a weak taste when one bit into it, but that 20 to 30 seconds later, “you suddenly experience a powerful aromatic rush at the back of the mouth as the Sauvignon fragrance returns.” Dr. Christian Starkenmann of Firmenich, a fragrance and flavor developer in Geneva, and his colleagues decided to investigate the mechanism behind this “retroaromatic” effect.
In order to smell something, Starkenmann noted in an interview with Reuters Health, a volatile substance must come in contact with the olfactory tissue lining the nasal cavity. Other researchers had previously shown that retroaromatic foods contain odorless sulfur compounds called cysteine-S-conjugates, and that volatile sulfur compounds released from these precursors called thiols gave such foods their scent.
To better understand how the odorless precursors were transformed into their smelly offspring, Starkenmann and his team had 30 trained panelists sample the sulfur thiol and corresponding cysteine-S-conjugate precursor for grapes, onions, and bell peppers. The panelists spit out each sample after five seconds and then reported their perceptions.
While the panelists perceived the scent of the thiols immediately, it took them 20 to 30 seconds to smell the cysteine-S-conjugate precursors. And while the odor of the thiols lasted for only a few seconds, the smell of the precursors persisted for up to three minutes.
To test which components of saliva might be responsible for releasing the thiols from their parent compounds, the researchers incubated the precursors with saliva that contained normal bacteria and with sterile saliva. Within 24 hours of being in the normal saliva, 80 percent of the compound had been broken down. But in the sterile saliva, the breakdown was much slower; after four days, less than 15 percent of the compound had disappeared.
This suggests, Starkenmann and his colleagues state, that mouth bacteria are responsible for releasing thiols from their precursor compounds contained in retroaromatic food and drink. Free thiols’ shorter taste duration appears to occur because they are quickly absorbed by saliva, they add.
The findings should be useful in helping to develop food products with more complex, longer-lasting tastes, Starkenmann told Reuters Health. In a separate line of research, he noted, he and his colleagues have found that a similar process is at work in producing bad breath and underarm odor.
SOURCE: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, November 12, 2008.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Related Posts:
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Three naturally occurring antibacterial compounds hold promise for a new class of antibiotics, offering hope for fresh weapons against infection at a time when older drugs are losing their punch, researchers said on Thursday. The new agents, reported in the journal Cell, may even provide a quicker cure for tuberculosis, which could help
Full Post: U.S. study points to strong new class of antibiotics
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here’s how to lose weight by eating more than you normally do. There’s a trick to this way. But once you know this trick, you’ll have an easier time losing weight. It’s really not that hard. Lose Weight by Eating More 1. Eat more fiber foods Foods high in fiber will fill you up quicker and curb between
Full Post: Lose Weight by Eating More!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Soul food and weight loss are two phrases that don’t seem to fit together. Soul food is the impossibly good, tasty foods that come from the African-American tradition of cooking - the foods that light a fire in your belly and make you feel comfortably at home, no matter where you are when you eat
Full Post: You Really Can Enjoy Delicious Soul Food and Still Lose Weight!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Obesity is emerging as one of the most wide spread problems - not only in America but all over the world. Initially, it was reported that obesity is more common among people living in western world. But nowadays obesity problem as extended its reach to eastern part of the world including counties like India, China,
Full Post: Accomplish Great Fat Reduction Through Xenical
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. researchers have developed a quick way to test milk for the presence of melamine, an industrial chemical found last year in milk in China that killed at least six children and made thousands sick. Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana said on Wednesday the method can detect tiny traces of the chemical
Full Post: Scientists develop test for melamine in milk