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Chemical Senses Advance Access originally published online on December 16, 2008
Chemical Senses 2009 34(2):145-150; doi:10.1093/chemse/bjn072
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Oral Detection of Short-, Medium-, and Long-Chain Free Fatty Acids in Humans

Richard D. Mattes

Department of Foods and Nutrition, Purdue University, 212 Stone Hall, 700 West State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2059, USA

Correspondence to be sent to: Richard D. Mattes, Department of Foods and Nutrition, Purdue University, 212 Stone Hall, 700 West State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2059, USA. e-mail: mattes{at}purdue.edu


  Abstract

There is increasing evidence supporting an oral chemosensory detection system for free fatty acids (FFA). The presumptive transduction mechanisms have different ligand specificities. Psychophysical studies with FFA varying in chain length and saturation may aid in identifying the presence and functionality of these mechanisms in humans. Oral detection thresholds were measured for linoleic, stearic, lauric, and caproic acids in 32 healthy adults by an ascending, 3-alternative, forced-choice, sip and spit procedure. Thresholds were obtained for all fatty acids from all participants, but the distributions were wide and nonnormal. Thresholds were not correlated between fatty acids nor with thresholds for sucrose (taste), butanol (olfactory), mineral oil, or gum acacia (both somatosensory). These data demonstrate human oral sensitivity to short-, medium-, and long-chain FFA and suggest the presence of multiple transduction mechanisms. The findings are consistent with, but do not definitively demonstrate, a role for taste that may have a genetic basis.

Key words: BMI, chemosensory, fat, gustatory, PROP, taste, taste threshold, taste transduction

Accepted 10 November 2008


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B. Bolton and B. P. Halpern
Orthonasal and Retronasal but not Oral-Cavity-Only Discrimination of Vapor-Phase Fatty Acids
Chem Senses, March 1, 2010; 35(3): 229 - 238.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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