Amide Compounds as Flavor Modifiers for Savory and Sweet Taste
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need for new and improved flavoring agents, particularly for the 'savory' or 'umami' taste, as monosodium glutamate (MSG) can cause adverse reactions, and existing natural enhancers like inosine monophosphate (IMP) and guanosine monophosphate (GMP) are difficult and expensive to isolate or synthesize, while high-intensity sweeteners and compounds that enhance sweetness without increasing calorie intake are also sought after.
Innovation Solution
Development of non-naturally occurring amide compounds with specific structures that bind to and activate T1R1/T1R3 'savory' or T1R2/T1R3 'sweet' taste receptors, allowing for the creation of flavor modulating agents that can enhance or induce savory or sweet tastes at low concentrations, potentially replacing or reducing the need for MSG and other sweeteners.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If monosodium glutamate (MSG) is used as a savory flavoring agent, then savory taste is enhanced, but adverse reactions occur in some people
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces MSG with synthetic amide compounds that provide similar savory taste enhancement without the adverse reactions. These amide compounds serve as disposable alternatives that achieve the same functional goal without the harmful effects.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the essential functional property of MSG (savory taste enhancement through T1R1/T1R3 receptor activation) and separates it from the harmful components, creating a new class of amide compounds that provide only the desired taste effect without the adverse reactions.
2Reliability
If inosine monophosphate (IMP) or guanosine monophosphate (GMP) are used to enhance MSG effectiveness, then savory taste is intensified, but isolation and purification become difficult and expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces expensive-to-produce natural nucleotides (IMP and GMP) with synthetically produced amide compounds that can be manufactured more easily and cost-effectively, while achieving the same flavor enhancement goal.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent substitutes the complex biological extraction and purification processes required for natural nucleotides with straightforward chemical synthesis methods for amide compounds, replacing a difficult mechanical/biological system with a simpler chemical manufacturing process.
3Reliability
If high-intensity sweeteners are used to increase sweetness, then sweetness is enhanced, but calorie intake may increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent modifies the intensity parameter of sweeteners by using amide compounds that are many times sweeter than sucrose, allowing for much lower concentrations to be used and thereby reducing the quantity of substance and associated calories while maintaining the desired sweetness level.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
These amide compounds effectively modulate taste receptors to enhance savory or sweet flavors in foods and beverages, offering a cost-effective and practical alternative to existing enhancers, with some compounds capable of inducing both sweet and savory tastes, thus broadening their utility.
Implementation Method 1
Many of the subgenuses and species of the amide compounds of Formula (I) can, at surprisingly low concentrations be used as savory or sweet flavoring agents, or savory or sweet taste enhancers. The amide compounds are also believed to similarly interact with savory or sweet flavor receptors of animals or humans in vivo
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to the discovery that certain non-naturally occurring, non-peptide amide compounds and amide derivatives, such as oxalamides, ureas, and acrylamides, are useful flavor or taste modifiers, such as a flavoring or flavoring agents and flavor or taste enhancer, more particularly, savory (the “umami” taste of monosodium glutamate) or sweet taste modifiers,—savory or sweet flavoring agents and savory or sweet flavor enhancers, for food, beverages, and other comestible or orally administered medicinal products or compositions.