by Glen Brizius

Created on: November 04, 2009

These two tricks are so much fun at parties. It's so, so easy to trick the taste buds. All you need is a little knowledge of chemistry, and the help of a plant named Synsepalum dulcificum. It's a medium to tall (10'-20' tall) evergreen shrub native to West Africa. Twice a year, it produces red berries. Wondering where this expedition to West Africa is headed, and how it could possibly be related to your taste buds?

Your tongue is covered with taste buds, and each bud is covered with taste receptors. These are molecules which, when stimulated by certain other molecules you ingest (food), send a signal to your brain indicating that the food you're eating has a certain flavor. For example, some receptors on your taste buds react to the carboxylic acid group as well as other acidic protons present in some food molecules (the classic example here being vingear - a dilute solution of acetic acid), and form a brief association with that molecule, long enough to send a signal that what you're eating is sour. Some citrus fruit, with their content of citric acid, trigger the same receptors.

Maybe what you're eating is sweet, in which case alcohol groups on the simple sugars in your food bind to "sweet" receptors and send a signal that what you are eating is sweet. This article promised two ways to trick your taste buds. Here's method #1: take an unsalted saltine cracker. It has to be unsalted, otherwise the "salty" receptors will also be triggered and overwhelm the response you're about to feel. Now, lay the saltine directly on your tongue and close your mouth (ok, maybe half a saltine!). At first, it just feels dry, maybe a little stale, the flour, the blandness. However, after just a few seconds, as the saltine becomes moist with your saliva, it starts to taste sweet!

The answer lies in your own body chemistry. Your saliva contains an enzyme known as alpha-amylase, and it breaks down the carbohydrate molecules of the cracker into simpler segments (like chopping up a long spaghetti noodle), eventually ending up with maltose and dextrin. These molecules *do* trigger the sweet receptors in your mouth, which is why the previously unsweet cracker becomes sweet simply by letting it dissolve in your mouth.

As a side note: humans only possess alpha-amylase, meaning that in chemist parlance, they can only break alpha-glycosidic bonds. That's fine with us, because all the carbohydrates we use as food have those types of linkages. However, termites possess intestinal bacteria

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