Synthesis of chitosan-cyclodextrin adducts and evaluation of their bitter-masking properties

Finding new taste modifiers, particularly bitter-taste blockers (BTBs), is an important goal for pharmaceutical and food industries. Although BTBs have been much sought after, only a few possess a wide spectrum of activity. We prepared, on a gram scale, several macromolecular adducts in which beta- and gamma-CDs are linked to chitosan through succinyl or maleyl bridges. Their bitterness-masking power was evaluated on caffeine and bitter natural extracts (artichoke leaves, aloe and gentian) by a panel test using serial caffeine concentrations as a reference scale. The beta-CD-chitosan adduct showed the highest efficacy and the bitterness attenuation was statistically significant. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.