Berlin - (Saba):
A team of scientists at the Leibniz Institute for Food Biology in Germany has discovered the bitterest chemical in mushrooms to date, an achievement that could advance our understanding of how the tongue perceives bitter taste.
Bitter taste receptors are part of a biological warning mechanism that evolved to help humans avoid consuming harmful substances. However, not all bitter compounds are toxic or harmful, and some toxic substances, such as the death cap mushroom, may not taste bitter.
Previous studies have shown that bitter receptors are found not only in the mouth, but also in the stomach, intestines, heart, and lungs. Although these organs are not directly involved in the taste process, their physiological significance remains unclear.
Scientists know that there are many chemical molecules that carry a bitter taste, which usually come from flowering plants or industrial sources. However, bitter compounds of animal, bacterial, or fungal origin remain less well-studied. In this regard, scientists at the Leibniz Institute were able to extract three compounds from the non-poisonous Amaropostea stipatica mushroom, which has an extremely bitter taste, and then studied their effect on human taste receptors.
The results showed that these compounds are the most bitter ever discovered.
Using laboratory-grown cell models, the team discovered that these compounds stimulate at least one of approximately 25 types of bitter taste receptors in the human body.
Among the compounds discovered, oligoporin D was the most interesting, stimulating the bitter taste receptor TAS2R46 even at the lowest concentrations.
Just one gram of oligoporin D dissolved in the equivalent of 106 baths of water was found to be extremely bitter. The scientists noted that oligoporin D activates TAS2R46 at concentrations below micromoles, making it one of the most potent bitter taste inducers discovered to date.
“The more reliable data we have on the different classes of bitter compounds, and the types and variants of taste receptors, the better able we are to develop predictive models to identify new bitter compounds and predict their effects on taste receptors,” said study co-author Mike Behrens.
He added, “Our findings contribute to expanding our knowledge of the diversity of molecular compounds and the modes of action of naturally occurring bitter compounds.”
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