Qualitative psychophysical studies on the gustatory effects of the sweet tasting proteins thaumatin and monellin

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Abstract
The gustatory effects of the sweet tasting proteins thaumatin and monellin were studied aftei application to small areas on the anterior third of the tongue or to single fungiform papillae. The sweet sensation caused by thaumatin and monellin developed more slowly, but reached a higher intensity and had a longer duration than that given by sucrose. Also, the response evoked by these sweet tasting proteins was more pronounced at the lateral edges, whereas that evoked by sucrose was stronger at the tip of the tongue. The taste modifier, miraculin, had no noticeable effect on the sweet taste elicited by thaumatin, monellin and sucrose. Gymnemic acid abolished the sweet taste of all three compounds. Experiments with time intervals of less than one minute between stimuli showed strong crossadaptation between thaumatin and monellin, between the two proteins and sucrose, and between the two proteins and miraculin-induced sweet taste of citric acid. While the differences in response to the sweet tasting proteins and sucrose may be taken as evidence in favor of the existence of more than one kind of sweet receptor, the cross-adaptation noted between the various substances tested, would seem to indicate that, at some point, they engage a common neural mechanism.

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