Bitterness of Leucine-containing Peptides

Abstract

In order to investigate the effect of leucine residues on the taste of peptides, some oligo peptides containing leucine residues were synthesized and their taste was evaluated. The hydrophobicity of leucine residues markedly caused the bitterness of peptides and stronger bitterness was always found when a leucine residue was located at the C-terminus of peptides. The possibility of 2 binding sites between the bitter peptides and the bitter taste receptors of the gustation cells was postulated.