Stimulation of the gerbil's gustatory receptors by some potently sweet terpenoids
1993
Vasquez, E. | Jakinovich, W. Jr
The gerbil was investigated as a model for sweet taste among several highly sweet plant terpenoids and the sweet dihydroisocoumarin phyllodulcin. Although the gerbil's chorda tympani nerve did not respond in electrophysiological experiments to rebaudiosides B and C, steviolbioside, and phyllodulcin, concentration-response curves were obtained for the stimulatory sweeteners hernandulcin, mogroside V, periandrin III, rebaudioside A, and stevioside. These compounds were more effective stimuli in the gerbil than sucrose, in the following order of potency: rebaudioside A = stevioside = periandrin III > hernandulcin > mogroside V > sucrose. In conditioned-taste aversion studies, gerbils trained to avoid these five stimulatory compounds generalized an avoidance to sucrose but not to hydrochloric acid, and except for the perception of a concomitant salty taste, our data show that these substances taste like sucrose to gerbils, as in humans. Support is thus provided for the potential involvement of this methodology to guide the purification of natural sweeteners from plant extracts.
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