FOOD. Science. Technology. Quality

Food. SCIENCE. Technology. Quality

Food. Science. TECHNOLOGY. Quality

Food. Science. Technology. QUALITY

Authors

DARIUSZ KIKUT-LIGAJ

Title

Predicting bitter taste of chromones and furochromones on the basis of simple pharmacophore model (SPM)

Abstract

Chromones and furochromones are characterized by the high biological activity. Derivatives that belong to the groups of those chemical compounds show diverse pharmacological effects. Bitter taste is one of the more important sensory indicators to determine qualitative properties of food. The studies on bitter taste play a key role in accounting for complex issues involved in the acceptance (or non-acceptance) of flavour compositions of many food products. In order to assess the bitter taste activity of the compounds under study, the so-called 3D pharmacophore models were applied. A number of “conventional” pharmacophoric functions were analyzed, such as: acceptors and donors of hydrogen bonds (HBA and HBD), areas of halogen groups (HAL), and aromatic/hydrophobic groups (AR/H). The pharmacophoric representations of the ligands studied have areas of both nucleophilic and aromatic/hydrophobic properties. The intensity of bitter taste (IBT) of the compounds analyzed depends directly on the number of pharmacophore representations. The ligands with several pharmacophore representations were found to activate the receptor protein quicker and more effectively. It was also proved that the most significant for taste stimulation were the number of areas stimulating the receptor (NPI- number of point interactions) and the indicator to determine the number of possible alignments of a single ligand into a hypothetical receptor area (NIS- number of interactive stimulations). The NPI and NIS parameters are molecular descriptors defining the affinity of the compounds studied to the receptor. The descriptors formulating the taste equation made it possible to determine the predicted values of bitter taste activity. The predicted values of the intensity of bitter taste (IBTp) of the compounds under study were successfully verified by sensory analyses of aqueous solutions of the study compounds (IBTS).

Keywords

chromones, furochromones, bitter taste perception, bitter ligands, simple pharmacophore model (SPM)

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