Bitterness is an ongoing taste problem for both the pharmaceutical and food
industries. This paper reports on how salts (NaCl, NaAcetate, NaGluconate,
LiCl, KCI) and bitter compounds (urea, quinine-HCl, caffeine, amiloride-HC
l, magnesium sulfate, KCl) interact to influence bitter perception. Sodium
salts differentially suppress bitterness of these compounds; for example ur
ea bitterness was suppressed by over 70% by sodium salts, while MgSO4 bitte
rness was not reduced. This study indicated that lithium ions had the same
bitter suppressing ability as sodium ions, however the potassium cation had
no bitter suppression ability. Changing the anion attached to the sodium d
id not affect bitter suppression, however, as the anion increased in size,
perceived saltiness decreased. This indicates that sodium's mode of action
is at the peripheral taste level, rather than a cognitive affect.
A second experiment revealed that suppressing bitterness with a sodium salt
in a bitter/sweet mixture causes an increase in sweetness. This suggests a
dding salt to a food matrix will not only increase salt perception, but als
o potentiate flavor by differential suppression of undesirable tastes such
as bitter, while increasing more desirable tastes such as sweet.