Correlations between saliva protein composition and some T-I parameters of astringency

Saliva samples were collected from 12 panellists immediately before and after the sensory assessment of two red wine samples and the salivary proteins in all samples were analysed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Three peaks appeared in the majority of the chromatograms and the areas of these peaks were individually correlated for each assessor against four astringency time-intensity (T-I) parameters (time to maximum intensity, total duration, maximum intensity and area under the T-I curve). Astringency was not correlated with the total area in the saliva chromatograms. However, 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 than 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.