Determination of Recognition Threshold and Just Noticeable Difference in the Sensory Perception of Pungency of Zanthoxylum bangeanum

Figures & data

TABLE 1 Concentration of the pungent extract used for JND threshold determination

Pungencyintensity	Concentration of referencesolutions (c, mg/mL)	Concentration of sample solutions (c, mg/mL)
		1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
Low	0.0360	0.0378	0.0397	0.0417	0.0438	0.0459
	0.0438	0.0460	0.0483	0.0507	0.0532	0.0559
	0.0532	0.0559	0.0587	0.0616	0.0647	0.0679
	0.0647	0.0680	0.0713	0.0749	0.0786	0.0826
	0.0786	0.0830	0.0867	0.0910	0.0955	0.100
Moderate	0.0955	0.100	0.105	0.111	0.116	0.122
	0.116	0.122	0.128	0.134	0.141	0.148
	0.141	0.148	0.156	0.163	0.171	0.180
	0.163	0.171	0.180	0.189	0.198	0.208
	0.198	0.208	0.218	0.229	0.241	0.253
	0.241	0.253	0.266	0.279	0.293	0.308
	0.279	0.293	0.308	0.323	0.339	0.356
	0.308	0.323	0.340	0.357	0.374	0.393
Strong	0.323	0.339	0.356	0.374	0.393	0.412
	0.373	0.392	0.411	0.432	0.453	0.476
	0.411	0.432	0.453	0.476	0.500	0.525
	0.453	0.476	0.500	0.525	0.551	0.578
	0.500	0.525	0.550	0.578	0.607	0.638
	0.578	0.607	0.638	0.669	0.703	0.738
	0.600	0.630	0.662	0.695	0.729	0.766

TABLE 2 Recognition threshold value of the pungent extract measured by two alternative-forced-choice method

Assessors	Concentration (10^–2 mg/mL)							Best estimatethreshold (BET,10^–2 mg/m)
	0.625	1.25	2.50	5.00	10.0	20.0	40.0
No. 1	–	+	+	–	+	+	+	0.884
	–	+	+	+	–	+	+	0.884
	–	–	+	+	–	+	+	1.77
No. 2	–	–	+	+	+	+	+	1.77
	–	+	–	+	+	+	–	3.54
	–	–	+	+	+	+	+	1.77
No. 3	+	–	+	+	+	–	+	1.77
	–	–	–	+	+	+	+	3.54
	–	–	+	+	–	+	+	1.77
No. 4	–	–	+	+	+	–	+	1.77
	–	–	–	+	+	+	–	3.54
	–	–	+	+	–	+	–	1.77
No. 5	–	–	–	–	+	+	+	7.07
	–	+	–	–	–	+	+	14.1
	+	–	–	–	+	+	+	7.07
No. 6	–	–	+	–	+	+	+	7.07
	–	–	+	+	+	+	–	1.77
	–	+	–	+	+	–	+	3.54
No. 7	–	–	–	+	–	+	+	14.1
	–	–	+	–	+	+	–	7.07
	–	–	–	–	+	+	+	7.07
No. 8	+	–	–	+	+	+	+	3.54
	+	–	+	+	–	+	+	1.77
	–	–	+	+	+	+	–	1.77
No. 9	–	–	–	–	+	+	+	7.07
	–	–	–	–	+	+	+	7.07
	–	–	–	–	+	+	–	7.07
No. 10	–	–	+	–	+	+	+	7.07
	–	–	–	–	+	+	+	7.07
	–	–	+	–	+	+	+	7.07
Sensory panel mean threshold (10^–2 mg/mL) = Geometric mean of personalBET of each assessors								3.62
Standard deviation								0.34

“–” indicates that the assessor selected the wrong sample of the set of the two; “+” indicates that the assessor selected the correct sample.

TABLE 3 JND threshold value of the pungent extract at different concentrations

Pungencyintensity	Concentration for referencesolutions (c, mg/mL)	JND (Δc, mg/mL)	Δc/c
Low	0.0360	0.00330	0.0917
	0.0438	0.00373	0.0852
	0.0532	0.00486	0.0914
	0.0647	0.00585	0.0904
	0.0786	0.00698	0.0888
	0.0955	0.00861	0.0902
Moderate	0.116	0.0106	0.0914
	0.141	0.0140	0.0993
	0.163	0.0153	0.0939
	0.198	0.0187	0.0944
	0.241	0.0230	0.0954
	0.279	0.0271	0.0971
	0.308	0.0305	0.0990
Strong	0.323	0.0326	0.101
	0.373	0.0382	0.102
	0.411	0.0525	0.128
	0.453	0.0549	0.121
	0.500	0.0562	0.112
	0.578	0.102	0.177
	0.600	0.128	0.213

FIGURE 1 The relationship between Delta C and the concentration of pungency extract solution (α = 0.05).