Correlations between saliva protein composition and some T-I parameters ofastringency

Saliva samples were collected from 12 panellists immediately before and aft er the sensory assessment of two red wine samples and the salivary proteins in all samples were analysed by high performance liquid chromatography (HP LC). Three peaks appeared in the majority of the chromatograms and the area s of these peaks were individually correlated for each assessor against fou r astringency time-intensity (T-I) parameters (time to maximum intensity, t otal duration, maximum intensity and area under the T-I curve). Astringency was not correlated with the total area in the saliva chromatograms. Howeve r, statistically significant correlations were obtained between the area of particular proteins and the sensory data indicating that the concentration of individual proteins in saliva might be more important for astringency t han the total protein content. Significant correlations were also obtained between the relative concentration of individual proteins and the T-I data. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.