MEASUREMENT OF THE RELATIVE TASTE INTENSITY OF SOME L‐α‐AMINO ACIDS AND 5′‐NUCLEOTIDES

SUMMARY— Intensity of glutamate-like and/or inosinate-like taste (umami in Japanese) of various flavor amino acids and flavor nucleotides was studied using sensory analysis and always found proportional to that of monosodium glutamate (MSG) and disodium 5′-inosinate (IMP), respectively. By application of this fact to a previously obtained equation expressing the relationship between the taste intensity of MSG-IMP mixture and that of MSG alone, the intensity of umami of the mixture of any flavor amino acids and nucleotides could be expressed as an elementary equation: y = u +γ uv, where u and v are the concentrations of amino acids and nucleotides in terms of the concentrations of MSG and IMP, respectively, in the mixture; y is the equivalent concentration of MSG alone; and γ is a positive constant. Interrelationships within each group of substances were additive.