Astringency and bitterness are organoleptic properties widely linked to tannin compounds. Due to their significance to food chemistry, the food industry, and to human nutrition and health, these tannins’ taste properties have been a line of worldwide research. In recent years, significant advances have been made in understanding the molecular perception of astringency pointing to the contribution of different oral key players. Regarding bitterness, several polyphenols have been identified has new agonists of these receptors. This review summarizes the last data about the knowledge of these taste properties perceived by tannins. Ultimately, tannins’ astringency and bitterness are hand-in-hand taste properties, and future studies should be adapted to understand how the proper perception of one taste could affect the perception of the other one.
Flavors and fragrances are the result of the presence of volatile and non-volatile compounds, appreciated mostly by the sense of smell once they usually have pleasant odors. They are used in perfumes and perfumed products, as well as for the flavoring of foods and beverages. In fact the ability of the microorganisms to produce flavors and fragrances has been described for a long time, but the relationship between the flavor formation and the microbial growth was only recently established. After that, efforts have been put in the analysis and optimization of food fermentations that led to the investigation of microorganisms and their capacity to produce flavors and fragrances, either by de novo synthesis or biotransformation. In this review, we aim to resume the recent achievements in the production of the most relevant flavors by bioconversion/biotransformation or de novo synthesis, its market value, prominent strains used, and their production rates/maximum concentrations.
Some polyphenols have unpleasant
taste properties such as astringency,
which could interfere with consumers’ choices. The knowledge
on astringency mechanisms points that astringency is a complex phenomenon
probably related to more than one physical–chemical mechanism.
Thus, this work aims to develop a new and more realistic cell-based
model containing human saliva, mucosa pellicle, and an oral cell line
(HSC-3) to understand the oral molecular events that could contribute
to the overall astringency perception. This model was then used to
study the interactions with a food procyanidin fraction (PF) by HPLC.
In general, the results revealed higher interaction (synergism) for
the model with all the referred oral constituents (mucosa pellicle,
salivary proteins, and HSC-3 cell line, HSCMuSp) when compared to
the interaction with individual constituents, the PF + cells or PF
+ saliva. Regarding the procyanidins, a significant interaction was
observed for the procyanidin monomer EcG, procyanidin dimers B7 and
B2G, and trimer C1.
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