TASTE THRESHOLDS FOR PHENYLTHIOCARBAMIDE OF SOME POPULATION GROUPS

Abstract

Summary1. A technique of estimating thresholds of taste for phenylthiocarbamide intended for use subsequently with small groups of primitively living subjects, has been employed in the first instance in a study of four samples, each of fifty subjects drawn from a civilized ethnic group living in Malaya, the groups being Chinese, European, Indian (Tamil) and Malay.2. The threshold values (recorded as T.S.N. values, viz. as values of n in the expression, 2–60 × 2‐n g./I., for the threshold concentrations of the substance) have been corrected for age and sex effects to the 32‐year‐old male as standard subject, on the basis of certain assumptions. The corrected data have been found to yield frequency distributions preferable to those yielded by data not so corrected.3. The so‐called ‘non‐taster’: ‘taster’ ratios found in the four samples previously mentioned were 0–02:0‐98, 0–196:0‐804, 0–272:0‐728 and 0–156:0‐844 respectively. As estimates of the ratios in the corresponding ethnic groups, these values have large standard deviations because of the small sample sizes. Even so, the differences between the ratios of the Chinese on the one hand and of each of the other groups on the other, are of appreciable statistical significance. Differences of appreciable statistical significance have been found between the mean T.S.N. values of some of the ‘taster’ fractions (range of means, 9–57‐10‐85) and also between the variances of the T.S.N. values of some of the ‘taster’ fractions (range of variances, 2–512‐6‐937). The findings of the study have been compared with those of some other investigators who have worked with various ethnic groups.