Prescott J, Stevenson R J
Sensory Research Centre, CSIRO Division of Food Science & Technology, North Ryde NSW, Australia.
Physiol Behav. 1995 Dec;58(6):1117-27. doi: 10.1016/0031-9384(95)02052-7.
The studies reported here addressed the question of whether the pungent principle in chilies, capsaicin, suppresses taste and flavor intensity. Over a period of several minutes, groups of frequent and infrequent eaters of chili repeatedly rated the taste and flavor intensities of sweet and sour solutions that also contained either orange or vanilla flavor, and capsaicin at 0, 2, 4, and 16 ppm. As well as the intensity of the qualities while in the mouth, measures of the number of rating periods for the intensity to dissipate to zero, and the summed total intensity were also derived. Infrequent chili users rated the capsaicin burn as more intense than did the frequent users. With few exceptions, and for groups, sweetness was suppressed by the presence of capsaicin. By contrast, sourness was unaffected by capsaicin. Flavor intensities also showed suppression by capsaicin. High correlations between ratings of sweetness and flavor were found, suggesting that perceptual confusion between the two qualities may have been responsible for the flavor suppression. A second experiment examined the effects of capsaicin on ratings of strawberry flavor alone. This study produced little evidence of flavor suppression by capsaicin. These results are discussed in terms of an attentional model of capsaicin's effects.
本文所报道的研究探讨了辣椒中的辛辣成分辣椒素是否会抑制味道和风味强度这一问题。在几分钟的时间里，经常食用辣椒和不常食用辣椒的人群反复对含有橙子或香草味以及浓度分别为0、2、4和16 ppm辣椒素的酸甜溶液的味道和风味强度进行评分。除了口中味道的强度外，还得出了味道强度消散至零所需评分时间段的数量以及总强度的测量值。不常食用辣椒的人对辣椒素灼烧感的评分比经常食用辣椒的人更高。除少数例外情况外，对于所有组而言，辣椒素的存在会抑制甜味。相比之下，酸味不受辣椒素影响。风味强度也显示出受辣椒素抑制。甜味和风味评分之间存在高度相关性，这表明两种味道之间的感知混淆可能是风味受到抑制的原因。第二个实验单独研究了辣椒素对草莓风味评分的影响。这项研究几乎没有证据表明辣椒素会抑制风味。本文根据辣椒素作用的注意力模型对这些结果进行了讨论。
