The hydrolysis of flavouring esters by artificial gastrointestinal juices and rat tissue preparations.

The rates of hydrolysis of sixteen esters used as constituents of artifical flavours have been determined in artificial gastrointestinal juices and in fresh preparations of rat liver and small intestine. The artificial gastrointestinal juices exhibited a limited ability to hydrolyse the esters and of which methyl anthranilate was virtually uneffected. On the other hand, rat liver and small intestinal preparations were found readily to hydrolyse the esters to their component acids and alcohols. These findings showing large differences between the results obtained from the two methods suggest that use of tissue preparations is likely to produce data more relevant to the toxicological assessment of esters.