A major challenge in taste research is to overcome the flavour imperfections in food products and to build nutritious strategies to combat against obesity as well as other related metabolic syndromes. The field of molecular taste research and chemical senses has contributed to an enormous development in understanding the taste receptors and mechanisms of taste perception. Accordingly, the development of taste-modifying compounds or taste modulators that alter the perception of basic taste modalities has gained significant prominence in the recent past. The beneficial aspects of these substances are overwhelming while considering their potential taste-modifying properties. The objective of the present review is to provide an impression about the taste-modulating compounds and their distinctive taste-modifying properties with reference to their targets and proposed mechanisms of action. The present review also makes an effort to discuss the basic mechanism involved in oro-gustatory taste perception as well as on the effector molecules involved in signal transduction downstream to the activation of taste receptors.
Occurrence of obesity and its associated metabolic disorders continues to escalate. The present study evaluates the anti-obesity effects of ethanolic fruit extract of Terminalia chebula (EETC) on high fat diet induced obese mice. The bioactive compounds present in the EETC is evaluated by Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR), Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis. The effects of EETC on energy intake, glucose tolerance, and various biochemical parameters were analyzed using laboratory mice. Relative gene expression of Fatty acid synthase (FAS), Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR ), Carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1 (CPT-1), Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-) as well as Interleukin 6 (IL-6) were analyzed in liver and adipose tissues. The findings reveal the hypolipidemic and anti-obesity potential of EETC on high fat fed obese mice. EETC exerts its anti-obesity effects by suppressing lipogenesis through reduction in lipogenic enzyme (FAS) expression, increased fatty acid oxidation via PPAR and CPT-1 and by triggering the anti-inflammatory responses. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the effect of EETC on PPAR and CPT-1 in in vivo.
Aim
Obesity is a major public health issue, which is associated with several chronic diseases. In rodents, voluntary wheel running (VWR) is a type of exercise that influences ingestive behavior. This study aims to investigate the possible function of VWR activity in the perception of fat taste and if it mitigates the immediate effects of fatty acid (FA) ingestion.
Methods
Male C57BL/6 mice were arbitrarily assigned to either a sedentary (SED) lifestyle or free access to a running wheel after 5 weeks of dietary regimen. Later these mice groups were used in the investigations on fat preference, metabolic tolerance, and electrophysiology. Diet‐induced alterations in CD36 and GPR120 expression that are related to fat perception and the capacitative calcium signaling caused by FA in taste bud cells (TBCs) were also examined.
Results
In obese groups, VWR temporarily reduced body weight, demonstrated improvement in preference scores for FA, and recovered from a deterioration in glucose homeostasis. In CD36‐positive TBCs, electrophysiological investigations showed alterations in [Ca2+]i caused by FA. Further, in the TBCs of circumvallate papillae, there are differences in the expression of the genes CD36 and GPR120 between the active and SED controls. Obese mice also show lower incentive salience for long‐chain fatty acids (LCFA) and adapted to the reward system of VWR which may lead to improved incentive salience accredited to wheel running.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this study provides the first evidence that VWR causes orosensory adaptations to fat and appears to alter taste preference for LCFAs.
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