Two-bottle preference tests were done to determine whether pigs detect bitter-tasting compounds. Four standard bitter compounds and nine bitter-tasting pharmaceutical compounds were tested. Pigs detect and avoid taste compounds that humans perceive as bitter-tasting. A dose-response to varying concentrations of bitter tastants can be measured.

Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the nutritional value of bitter vetch. Experiment 1 was conducted to determine the metabolisable energy content of bitter vetch. Sixteen adult Leghorn roosters were used. Forty grams of bitter vetch were precision-fed individually to 12 roosters. In addition, 4 birds were not fed and served as a control treatment in the measurement of metabolic fecal...

Animals can discriminate among many different types of foods. This discrimination process involves multiple sensory systems, but the sense of taste is known to play a central role. We asked how the taste system contributes to the discrimination of different "bitter" taste stimuli in Manduca sexta caterpillars. This insect has approximately eight bilateral pairs of taste cells that respond selec...

The bitter taste of many protein rich foods resides in the peptide fraction. 61 bitter tasting peptides, isolated from natural systems, and 145 bitter tasting synthetic peptides are reviewed. The relationships between average hydrophobicity and bitter taste are then discussed.

Molecular data suggest that receptors for all bitter ligands are coexpressed in the same taste receptor cells (TRCs), whereas physiological results indicate that individual TRCs respond to only a subset of bitter stimuli. It is also unclear to what extent bitter-responsive neurons are stimulated by nonbitter stimuli. To explore these issues, single neuron responses were recorded from the rat nu...

Taste receptors play a crucial role in detecting the presence of bitter compounds such as alkaloids, and help to prevent the ingestion of toxic food. In Drosophila, we show for the first time that several taste sensilla on the prothoracic legs detect bitter compounds both through the activation of specific taste neurons but also through inhibition of taste neurons activated by sugars and water....

BACKGROUND Cucurbitacins are mostly found in the members of the family Cucurbitaceae and are responsible for the bitter taste of cucumber. Pharmacological activities such as anti-bacterial and anti-tumor effects have been attributed to these structurally divers triterpens. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of potassium phosphite (KPhi) and chitosan on Cucurbitacin E (CuE) conc...

The extent of diversity among bitter-sensing neurons is a fundamental issue in the field of taste. Data are limited and conflicting as to whether bitter neurons are broadly tuned and uniform, resulting in indiscriminate avoidance of bitter stimuli, or diverse, allowing a more discerning evaluation of food sources. We provide a systematic analysis of how bitter taste is encoded by the major tast...

Many bitter stimuli are believed to bind to specific G-protein-coupled membrane receptors on taste cells. Despite the compelling evidence for its pivotal role in bitter taste sensation, a direct involvement of the G-protein subunit -gustducin in bitter taste transduction in taste cells has not been demonstrated in situ at the cellular level. We recorded activation of taste cells by bitter stimu...

Members of the phylum Echinodermata, commonly known as echinoderms, are exclusively marine invertebrates. Among the Echinodermata, sea cucumber belongs to the family Holothuroidea. The sea cucumber Stichopus (Apostichous) japonicus (Selenka) is an invertebrate animal inhabiting the coastal sea around Korean, Japan, China, and Russia. Sea cucumber has a significant commercial value, because it c...