Quantitative characterization of sucrose taste by statistical physics modeling parameters using an analogy between an experimental physicochemical isotherm of sucrose adsorption on β-cyclodextrin and a putative biological sucrose adsorption from sucrose dose-taste response curve (psychophysics and electrophysiology)

This work represents a contribution to understanding the taste or gustatory mechanism of sucrose by using a proposed model expression established by a statistical physics treatment. Gustative and physicochemical parts are used as constituents in this work. We start with a modeling of experimental adsorption isotherms of sucrose molecules onto beta-cyclodextrin followed by a similar modeling of sweet taste dose-response curves of sucrose by a putative adsorption process of sucrose molecules onto nerve receptor sites. Numerical values of the three involved parameters in the expression of the best fitting model are derived by adjustment, namely the number of adsorbed molecules per site n, the adsorption capacity Q(M) and the energetic coefficient C-1/2. Steric and energetic interpretations are given. The internal energy, adsorption entropy, and Gibbs free enthalpy are studied. The pore size distribution (PSD) and the adsorption energy distribution (AED) of beta-cyclodextrin and of host cavities in gerbil nerve. In the second part the same method of fitting is applied to the biological sweet taste dose-response curves of the same molecule (sucrose) on taste receptor cells in gerbil nerve (electro-physiological) and in human (psychophysical). All this information and physicochemical parameters are introduced in the model expression to fit the putative adsorption of sucrose molecule. And, all these stereographic and energetic parameters will be considered henceforward to objectively characterize the sucrose molecule sweet taste. Furthermore, all these parameters determined in the two parts are compared with other sucrose adsorption results established by other authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.