Abstract
Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) is a critical component of the Mediterranean diet, which has been found beneficial to human health. Bitterness is often positively associated with the presence of phenolic compounds in EVOO. There are twenty-five bitter taste receptors (TAS2Rs) in humans, each of which responds to specific bitter tastants. The identity of phenolic compounds and the bitter taste receptors they stimulate remain unknown. In this study, we isolated 12 phenolic and secoiridoid compounds from the olive fruit and the oil extracted from it, and tested their ability to stimulate bitter taste receptor activity, using a calcium mobilization functional assay. Our results showed that seven out of twelve studied compounds activated TAS2R8, and five of them activated TAS2R1, TAS2R8, and TAS2R14. The phenolic compounds oleuropein aglycon and ligstroside aglycon were the most potent bitter tastants in olive oil. TAS2R1 and TAS2R8 were the major bitter taste receptors activated most potently by these phenolic compounds. The results obtained here could be utilized to predict and control the bitterness of olive oil based on the concentration of specific bitter phenolics produced during the milling process of olives.
Highlights
Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) is a critical component of the Mediterranean diet, which is mostly plant-based and includes a high consumption of cereals, vegetables, and fruits with a lower consumption of red meat and sweets
Functional assay of bitter taste receptors
Since the discovery of its structure in 1 96069, oleuropein (1) has been thought to be the main source of bitterness of the olive fruit considering its removal by hydrolysis and/or oxidation to make the olive fruit edible
Summary
Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) is a critical component of the Mediterranean diet, which is mostly plant-based and includes a high consumption of cereals, vegetables, and fruits with a lower consumption of red meat and sweets This diet has been found beneficial to human health by reducing the risk for cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes and generally metabolic syndrome, malignancies such as breast and gastric cancer, as well as depression, and cognitive impairment[1,2]. EVOO contains numerous substances that have a beneficial role in human health, including phenols, which are produced at the malaxation step during production of olive oil, starting from oleuropein (1) and ligstroside (2) (Fig. 1). Extraoral expression of bitter taste receptor throughout the body mediate diverse nontasting roles through various mechanisms[33,34,35]
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